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J^ LIFE 



OF 



GROYER CLEYELAND 

WITH A SKETCH OP 

ADLAI E. STEVENSON 



BY 

GEORGE F. PARKER 

EDITOR OF "the WRITINGS AND SPEECHES OF GROVER 
CLEVELAND" 



V..<3^ 



NEW YORK 
CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY 

104 & 106 Fourth Avenue 



COPTRIGHT, 1892, BY 

CASSELL PUBLISHING COMrANT. 



AH rights reserved. 



THE MERSHON COMPANY PRHSi, 
RAHWAV, N. J. 



PREFACE. 

The accompanying Life of Grover Cleve- 
land may be considered a supplement to 
my volume of his ^^ Writings and Speeches," 
issued in June last. While making the 
researches necessary for that, I was struck 
with the paucity and weakness of the 
literature that had grown up about this 
virile political figure. Coming to the 
front as he did without notice, rounding 
out a political career in an unprecedentedly 
brief time, no serious and intelligent 
attempt had ever been made to bring out 
in anything like connected form the 
words and a history of the acts that rep- 
resented what Mr. Cleveland is, and what 
he means to the American people. Most 
of the sketches extant were written in 
1884 and re-issued in 1888, almost without 
revision. They are of little value as a 
record of his career, or an estimate of his 
character. 

m. 



IV PREFACE. 

It was my good fortune to be thrown 
into intimate relations witli this man, 
and to discover, as I studied his character, 
that much biographical material had re- 
mained unused. This knowledge was util- 
ized as best I knew how in the editing of 
the "Writings and Speeches," which was 
prepared without any attempt at an esti- 
mate other than that included in the Intro- 
duction, a composition purely critical both 
in character and intent. 

It appeared to me that the time was 
opportune for a brief, comprehensive sketch 
which should bring together, in a reason- 
able compass, the events of Mr. Cleveland's 
life, giving due emphasis to the great polit- 
ical work he had done since his elec- 
tion to the Presidency in 1884. I have 
modestly attempted to do this here; in 
the main, to sketch only in outline the acts 
of the man, leaving the reader to turn to 
the collected writings for his words. I 
have thus been able to get away from the 
old-time documentary sketch, which was 
little more than a collection of letters and 
speeches. 



PREFACE. V 

Whatever faults this volume may have, 
it is at least an honest attempt to sum up 
the character of its subject, after a narra- 
tion, however brief, of his achievements. 
It has been throughout a labor of love. 
I have the hio^hest admiration for the man 
who is the subject of it, and the warmest 
personal attachment. I believe thoroughly 
in the enlightened ideas and impulses he 
represents, and profess the faith of the 
political party he has both led and regen- 
erated. This sketch is, therefore, by a 
friendly hand. The career under discus- 
sion is not one that has things to be con- 
cealed. The subject of it is himself open, 
manly, free from vanity and show, moved 
by impulses of the highest patriotism, 
always looking at a question from a moral 
point of view, and devoted in a degree 
that few men can be to what he believes 
to be the best interests of his countrymen. 

Knowing as well as believing all this, 
I have not had to look for flaws nor to 
analyze bad or questionable motives and 
methods, either personal or political. I 
have simply felt moved, so far as in me 



VI PREFACE. 

lay, to " tell the truth." So, if my little 
work reads like a eulogy, the reasou is 
not far to seek. I have felt that the mere 
telling of the story of his life iu plain 
language makes impossible anything else 
than praise. This inheres to the character 
of the man studied, and accords with my 
own conception of the dignity and useful- 
ness of the public service he has done and 
may still do. 

I have given only brief space to his 
earlier life and struggles. Mr. Cleveland's 
whole public career, like that of every 
other man of force, is builded upon the 
character which came fi-om native abilities, 
and from his youthful surroundings and 
days of struggle. It remains true, how- 
ever, that the public work is the one thing 
that interests his countrymen. They may 
like to know something of the foundation 
and how it was made, but in this case it is 
the superstructure that is interesting and 
valuable to them, and they want to know 
this in reasonable detail. I have reviewed 
his public service topically, endeavoring to 
set it forth with sufficient fullness to give 



PREFACE. 



the reader a knowledge of his acts. For 
his words I must refer to his writings and 
speeches. 

I hope that these two books, complet- 
ing for the present the study that I started 
out to make, may find some acceptance as 
my humble contribution to contemporary 
history. If I have succeeded even in a 
small degree, I shall have abundant reward, 
because my own studies of public men long 
ago convinced me that it is far more diffi- 
cult to get fairly accurate information 
about men of the time than of those 
whose records have passed finally into 
history. 

I cannot forbear to make acknowledg- 
ment to friends who have assisted me. 
Little has been known about Mr. Cleve- 
land as a young man. I have consequently 
deemed myself fortunate in securing from 
Miss Frances J. Crosby a careful review of 
his life at that time. This certainly ought 
not only to add to the interest of my little 
book, but contribute something to a knowl- 
edge of the character it treats. 

In like manner his professional career 



'^'" PREFACE. 

has Dot attracted the attention that it 
deserved. Many men kno^. him as an 
excellent lawyer; few know that he was 
practically the leader of the bar in a great 
and important community. The estimate 
made of him by his former partner and 
long, ime personal friend, Mr. Wilson S 
Bissell, will, I think, contribute in some 
degree to supply this lack. 

Mr Eichard Watson Gilder, long Mr 
Cleveland's friend and for some years my 
own, from his abundant store of knowl- 
edge, has given me a kindly and critical 
analysis of his friend and mine. I esteem 
this the more keenly because Mr. Gilder 
seldom writes for publications other than 
those of his own company, and for the 
iurtlier reason that, without solicitation, he 
kindly sent me the letter included in this 
volume. It is a warm and sympathetic 
analysis of the man whose training and 
careei- are so different from his own, and 
IS the result of a friendship honorable in 
the highest degree to both. 
^ In the preparation of the brief sketch of 
Mr. Stevenson, I have obtained from that 



PREFACE. ^^ 

gentleman many of the material facts 
included in it. In addition to tliis, I have 
known liim well for many years, and count 
him as one of my circle of friends. I have 
endeavored to set forth his character as 
well as I could in the brief space allotted 
to it, and trust that his countrymen may 
get from it some idea of the noble qualities 

of the man. 

While this work has been written in the 
stress of other and absorbing employments, 
and does not therefore make any preten- 
sions to literary merit, I hope I may 
have been successful in giving to my 
readers something like a fair idea of the 
men whose characters are thus delineated. 
GEORaE F. Parker. 

New York, September 10, 1892. 



CONTENTS 



A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

PAGE 
CHAPTEB 

I. Ancestry and Early Life, .... 1 

11. As Student and Lawyer, . . . - ^ 

III. As Mayor of Buffalo, 45 

IV. The Canvass for the Governorship, . 69 
V. First Year in the Governorship, . . 80 

VI. Second Year nr the Governorship, . 105 

. VII. The Presidential Canvass and Election, . 116 

VIII. Organizing the Executive Departments, 140 

IX. The Work of Administration, . . 159 

X. The Work of Adaiinistration (coiitinued), 179 

XI. The Work of Administration (concluded), . 200 

XII. The Tariff-Reform Message, . . . 214 

XIII. Canvass of 1888 and Retirement, . . 224 

XIV. A General Estimate of Character, . 247 
XV. A Literary Man's Estimate, . . -261 

A SKETCH OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON. 



I. Birth and Education, . 
II. Professional Life and Politics, 

III. Service in Congress, 

IV. In the Post- Office Department, 
V. Characteristics and Success, 



271 
278 
289 
304 
315 



A LIFE OF GROYER GLEYELRND 

CHAPTER I. 

ANCESTEY AND EAELY LIFE. 

The first of the Cleveland name-a 
name made famous by the subject of this 
sketch— known to this country was Moses 
Cleaveland, who came to Massachusetts m 
1635 from Ipswich, in the county ot Nor- 
folk Eno'land. The name was then spelled 
" Cleveland," the superfluous " a" having 
been dropped by some of his successors, 
although several branches of the family 
collateral to that to which the ex-President 
belon-s have retained it. In about two 
generations from the beginniug-as was 
not uncommon in the records of New Eng- 
Ig^^fl life— the ministerial habit became 
fixed in the Cleveland family; since 
which time there has never been a genera- 
tion in which one or more of the name was 



2 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

not a minister of some one of the Protes- 
tant Churches. In one or two eases they 
were EpiscojDalians, but in general they 
took to Presbyterianism or to its sister, 
Congregationalism. 

It is not necessary to go at any great 
length mto the genealogical history of the 
family simply because a descendant of 
the original stock has attained distinc- 
tion. Each generation of the Cle^relands 
has been active, energetic; never noted 
perhaps, at any time for the possession 
of great wealth or such genius as to at- 
tract universal attention in their various 
walks of life, but at all times the men 
and the women have done their duty and 
have done it well. The family connections 
have been good, and yet there is no record 
anywhere that anything like extraordinary 
family pride or vanity has been engen- 
dered. ^ 

Among the descendants of the original 
Cleveland there have been, as already as- 
serted, many men of character and ability. 
They have been found in almost every 
occupation and profession— farmers, me- 



ANCE8TR J ANT) EARL T LIFE. ^ 

clianics, lawyers, physicians, soldiers, minis- 
ters of the gospel at home and missionaries 
in foreign lands. As early as 1757 one of 
the ministerial members of the family, in 
the fourth generation, the Kev, Aaron 
Cleveland, died in Philadelphia at the 
house of Benjamin Franklin, and his vir- 
tues were recorded by his philosopher 
friend in the primitive weekly newspaper 
which he conducted. In this notice, which 
would be considered singularly brief for a 
man of such prominence in the present day, 
the great American philosopher pronounced 
upon his dead friend the following eulogy : 

"As he was a gentleman of humane and 
pious disposition, indefatigable in his minis- 
trv easy and affable in his conversation 
open and sincere in his friendship and 
above every species of meanness and dis- 
simulation, his death is greatly lamented by 
all who knew him, as a loss to the public— a 
loss to the Church of Christ in general, and 
in particular to that congregation who had 
proposed to themselves so much satisfaction 
from his late appointment among tliem, 
agreeable to their own request. 

Ever since that day there have been 
prominent clergymen in the ranks of the 



4 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

Cleveland family, and the general cliarac- 
teristics of all, whatever their calling, have 
been those described so well by Benjamin 
Franklin. 

In 1793 AVilliam Cleveland, the grand- 
father of Grrover Cleveland — a watchmaker 
of the old-fashioned, hard-working, careful 
kind, engaged in business in Westiield, 
Mass. — was married to Margaret Falley 
at Norwich, Conn. In the latter place 
the young couple settled down to live, 
and on June 19, 1805, there was born to 
them a son, Richard Falley Cleveland, 
who was the father of Grover Cleveland. 
It was decreed in the councils of the 
family that this young man should be- 
come a minister. Accordingly he was 
trained in the schools of Norwich and there 
fitted for entering into Yale College, from 
which institution he was graduated in 
1824. 

AVhen he began to look about for a place 
to practice his profession he was led to go 
for a time to Baltimore, Md., where for 
a year he filled a position as tutor in a 
private school. He proceeded forthwith to 



ANCESTR T AND EARL T LIFE. 5 

fall in love with Anne Neal, but, as lie liad 
not yet perfected himself in his theological 
studies, he left his lady-love behind and en- 
tered upon the study of theology in the 
Seminary of Princeton. In 1829, when he 
was twenty-four years old, he returned to 
Baltimore and he and Miss Neal were mar- 
ried. They went at once to Windham, 
Conn., in which place the young man had 
been oifered a position as minister of the 
Congregational Church. He began his pro- 
fessional life with enthusiasm, and his earn- 
est, eloquent sermons were long remembered 
in the neighborhood in which he first began 
his work. He accepted soon after a call 
from the Presbyterian Church of Ports- 
mouth, Va., where he hoped to re-establish 
his health, then somewhat shattered. He 
remained there for only a brief time, and 
the work he did was not different from 
that which usually fell upon a young 
clergyman in those days in a small 
town. 

In due time, with health restored, he be- 
gan to contemplate a return to the North, 
and upon the recommendation of his old in- 



6 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

structors at Princeton he was called to the 
pastorate of the Presbyterian church in 
Caldwell, N. J., then, as now, a village in 
Essex County in that State. He began his 
work in this new field just before Christ- 
mas, 1834, and in the parsonage attached 
to this modest church Grover Cleveland 
was born on the 18th day of March, 
1837. 

For many years preceding the arrival 
of Eichard F. Cleveland in Caldwell, the 
pastor had been a man dee]3ly beloved by 
his congregation, one whose death ^vas 
greatly lamented — Stephen Grover. In 
recognition of the good qualities of this 
predecessor the child was given the name 
which has now become famous. But even 
in his later boyhood the name Stephen was 
never used, and before he had arrived at 
the years of maturity he was always 
known by his middle name. 

In 1841 Richard Cleveland accepted a 
call to the pastorate of the Presbyterian 
Church in Fayetteville, K Y., a small vil- 
lage situated in what ^vas then almost a 
pioneer region in Onondaga County. Syra- 



ANCESTM Y AND EARL Y LIFE. 1 

cuse, now grown to be an important city, 
was tlien little more than a village, and the 
marvelous growth of central New York 
had only just begun. As a consequence 
there was a good deal of difficulty in 
reaching the new pastorate, and it was 
only after many days of Aveary travel by 
river, canal, and wagon that the Cleveland 
family, then numbering — besides the 
father and mother — three daughters and 
three sons, reached its destination in this 
new and comparatively unsettled region. 

Once there the father settled down to a 
work that was congenial and useful. Like 
many a minister in those days the salary 
was small and the allowances almost noth- 
ing. But the energy of the father and the 
prudent watchfulness and loving foresight 
of the mother enabled them to bring up 
their family, not in luxury, but with all the 
comforts of life. In spite of the $600 a 
year, which would seem almost insignifi- 
cant at this day, and upon which scarcely 
any man of this type would undertake in 
such a place to rear and train a family, 
there was never anything like poverty in 



8 A LIFE OF QROVER CLEVELAND. 

the Cleveland home. There was a neces- 
sity for close management, care, and pru- 
dent economy on the part of all, but each 
did his part in the task of making life 
happy. 

This relation to Fayetteville continued 
about eleven years, when, in 1851, Eichard 
Cleveland, having accept ed^the agency of 
the American Home Missionary Society at 
the munificent salary of $1000 a year, re- 
moved with his wife and children, the 
latter now increased to nine, to Clinton, 
Oneida County. One of the motives of 
this change was not only a better position 
in life, but a desire to use the educational 
facilities offered by Hamilton College, then, 
as now, located in Clinton. The eldest 
son, the Rev. William N. Cleveland, now 
pastor of the Presbyteiian Church at 
Chaumont, Jefferson County, X. Y., 
finished his education at Hamilton College, 
while the 3'ounger members of the family 
were able to avail themselves of the ad- 
vantages of the Clinton schools, the boys 
with immediate reference to a college 
career. 



ANCE8TR T AND EARL Y LIFE. 9 

Before leaving Fayetteville, Grover, 
then fourteen years old, had accepted a 
place as clerk in a grocery store in Fayette- 
ville, and so did not at once go with the 
family to the new home. He was able to 
command for his services in this useful but 
humble capacity the large sum of $50 a 
year, with the promise of $100 for the 
second year. A single year, however, was 
enough. At the end of that time the 
father called his son home in order that he 
might begin his work in the academy. 

The duties of the young boy in the 
country store were not different from those 
of the ordinary boy; nor are there any 
records to show that he was either more 
or less efficient or more or less active than 
the average young merchant of his kind. 
Since he became prominent every event of 
his life has been brought to light, and it 
has been found that even in those days 
whatever he did he did well, and that he 
left behind him a reputation for fidelity 
that was not soon forgotten. As was com- 
mon in the early days of every new com- 
munity, all the people of the surrounding 



10 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

country found their way to this store. 
There he studied human nature to ad- 
vantage, and got that insight into the 
motives of men which has been so useful 
to him during his public career. As a re- 
sult of this experience and his natural gifts 
he has the faculty of knowing the peoj^le 
and knowing how to reach them— better 
perhaps than any other public man of our 
generation, with the exception of Abraham 
Lincoln, who had a training similar in 
many respects. Now, when he speaks of 
the "j^lain people of the land," as he is 
wont to do with kindness and affection, it 
is from personal knowledge ; he knows what 
these plain people have done and what 
they are doing; he knows the motives 
that guide them, and how to appeal to 
their intelligence so as to command the 
best results. 

On joining his family at Clinton the lad 
entered^ the academy at that place. In this 
institution he made satisfactory progress in 
his studies and expected in due time to 
enter Hamilton College, where he avouM 
continue his educational training. But 



ANGESTR Y AND EARL Y LIFE. 1 1 

these plans were never carried out, for 
in September, 1853, tlie family moved to 
Holland Patent, where the father had re- 
ceived a call from the Presbyterian 
Church. This was a village about fifteen 
miles from Utica. Only three weeks 
after this removal, on October 1, 1853, 
Richard F. Cleveland died and left his 
wife and children to struggle with the 
world as best they could. The mother 
remained in Holland Patent and kept with 
her such of her family as had nofc already 
gone out into the world to make their for- 
tunes, and resided there the rest of her life, 
dying in 1882, only a few weeks before 
the nomination of Grover Cleveland as the 
candidate for Governor of New York, and 
while he was Mayor of Buffalo. 

In the mean time the eldest son, William, 
had obtained employment as principal 
male teacher in the Institution for the 
Blind, in New York City, which had at 
that time about two hundred pupils. 
When the older brother returned from the 
funeral of his father he arranged with 
the trustees of the institution to give 



12 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

employment to his younger brother, 
Grover ; and during the month of October, 
1853, the later assumed the position of 
bookkeeper and assistant to the superin- 
tendent of that institution. 

In order that I might obtain some infor- 
mation about the career of Grover Cleve- 
land at the Institution for the Blind, and 
learn something of his character at that 
early age, I was fortunate enough to 
get from Miss Frances J. Crosby, a pupil 
and teacher in that institution from 1835 
to 1858, her recollections of the young man 
as he appeared to her at that time. 

Miss Crosby is an interesting character 
— one of those independent persons who 
will not permit misfortunes to keep them 
from hard work, or from attempting to 
satisfy some of their ambitions. For 
many years she has been recognized as one 
of the best hymn-writers of the country. 
During her early life she devoted herself 
with much assiduity to poetry and to the 
work of promoting the interests of the 
Institution for the Blind, then compara- 
tively unknown and little appreciated by 



ANCE8TR Y AND EARLY LIFE. 1 3 

the families of those so afflicted. She has 
done efficient work in every way, con- 
quering for herself an excellent position. 

In speaking of the man who has since 
come to such fame— her associate for a 
year in his early days— she says: 

"When Grover Cleveland came to the 
Institution in 1853, he was in his seven- 
teenth year. His mind was unusually well 
developed for his years ; so well, in fact, 
that he might be called a marvel of pre- 
cocity. He was nearly full grown as to 
height, but slender, though he had reached 
mental maturity many years earlier than 
the average man. He had an mtellectual 
appearance ; indeed, it was surprising that 
one so young was able to hold a position 
of such importance and to make his mark 
in it. He seemed to have about him even 
then the manner of a mature man. It was 
my fortune to make his acquaintance soon 
after he came to the Institution, and I felt, 
therefore, free to tell him, as I did many 
times, that he had a mind much in advance 
of his years, and I also used, with almost 
motherly caution, to say to ^him : ' Take 



14 A LIFE OF OROVER GLEVELAim. 

care that you do not study too mucli and 
injure yourself.' 

" Every moment of his spare time 
was given to the hardest kind of study. 
He was a persistent reader^ devoting most 
of his attention to history, and devel- 
oping even in those days something of a 
bent for the law, which he ^vas finally to 
make his calling. But he did not confine 
his reading entirely to such solid matter. 
Many times he favored myself, and other 
teachers and pupils in the Institution, by 
reading to us from the poets. Among 
other authors who were favorites of his 
was Thomas Moore, from ^vhom he read 
a good many selections, as well as from 
Byron. I remember that at one time he 
read Byron's ^ Corsair ' to me. Even then 
he had developed the faculty of hard ^vork, 
which has so distinguished his ]?:ter career, 
so that it is no new thing for him to burn 
the midnight oil. He did so even as a 
young man Avhen I first knew him thirty- 
nine years ago. 

" No man could have a kinder heart than 
had Grover Cleveland in those days — days 



ANGESTR r AND EARL Y LIFE. 1 5 

that, to most boys of his age, might 
be termed formative. He came to us 
ahnost immediately after the death of 
his father, and as a result he had an 
air of pensive sadness about him. He 
showed that he felt very keenly the loss of 
his father. This did not take the form of 
melancholia, but he used often to talk 
to me about his father in an intimate, 
familiar way that was touching and very 
natural. As a cliild, he had been brought 
up in a Christian household, under the 
ministrations of a father noted for his deep 
piety and of a mother distinguished for 
tenderness and care for her family. 

" When he first came there I used often 
to talk to him when his office duties were 
over, and in due course of time we became 
good friends. Perhaps I knew him quite 
as well as any of the teachers or officers of 
tlie Institution. He came in contact with 
mature men and women there, many of 
whom have since become well known in 
various fields of work, and was able to 
meet them upon their own plane. He 
showed himself to be keen and thoughtful. 



16 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

At the same time lie was extremely 
modest; something I have noted with 
interest since his great public career has 
brought him before the people of his country. 
" Indeed, the first time I met him after 
those early associations was in Lakew^ood, 
N. J., during the past winter. At that 
time I noticed the same modest demeanor. 
He was interested in telling me of an ex- 
perience of his while President. A con- 
vention or meeting of blind people was 
held at Baltimore during that time, and he 
went there on purpose to see them. In re- 
counting to me this incident he never re- 
ferred to the matter as having occurred 
while he was President, but he used a form, 
which I am told he has almost uniformly 
adopted, of sa3dng, ' When I was in Wash- 
ington ' ; in fact, I do not believe that 
during our interview he used the word 
President, or in any way said anything to 
indicate that he had held such an exalted 
office. This was thorougldy characteristic 
of him, as lie was always anxious to avoid 
anything like praise or commendation of 
himself. 



ANCESTR YAND EAELT LIFE. 1 7 

" He did not strike me during tlie period 
I knew him as a young man who would 
have a great number of friends, although 
he had a capacity for friend ship. I thought 
that he was somewhat chary of giving his 
confidence to many people. This did not 
come from any feeling of vanity, but from 
his natural reserve. But when he came to 
know a person and gave his confidence, he 
did so fully and unreservedly. He vs^as 
always kindly and sympathetic, and dur- 
ing his residence there the tendency v^as 
strongly developed at every turn. He re- 
sented occasional cruelties practiced by a 
superintendent, who lacked the qualities 
necessary for a successful administration 
of such an important place. I remember 
at one time, that when a boy was punished 
with undue severity, young Cleveland spoke 
to me about it with much feeling. He 
could not, of course, in his position, take 
steps to resent it by a physical dem- 
onstration, but he showed in every v^^ord 
and action that he would like to punish its 
perpetrator in the most effective way. 

" I remember another incident that had 



18 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

a bearing personal to myself. The same 
superintendent had about him a dictatorial 
way when he found himself in authority 
over anybody. It so hap]3ened one day 
that I went downstairs into the office, 
where Mr. Cleveland worked, and asked 
him to copy a poem. He did so, and when 
he had nearly finished the work, the super- 
intendent came in and said, in a very inso- 
lent way : ^ Miss Crosby, when you want 
Mr. Cleveland to copy a piece for you, I 
will thank you to come and ask me.' Of 
course I felt very much hurt, and when 
the superintendent went ^out, Mr. Cleve- 
land said to me : ^ Now, Fanny Crosby, 
how long do you intend to allow that man 
to harrow up your feelings like this ? ' I 
asked him : ^ What can I do to stop it ? ' 
and he said, ' By giving as good as he 
sent.' 

" I was nonplused, and in reply I said, 
^ Mr. Cleveland, I never was saucy in my 
life.' To this he replied : ' But it is not 
impudent to take your own part, and you 
never will be taught independence and 
self-reliance any younger. Now, we will 



ANGE8TR T AND EARL Y LIFE. 1 9 

try an experiment. Come down to- 
morrow, and ask me to copy another poem 
for you. I will do so, and then you come 
in as usual and you will see the conse- 
quences, but in any event make up your 
mind never to let anyone impose upon 
you.' According to this agreement I 
went down and asked Mr. Cleveland to 
copy a poem for me. As was anticipated, 
the superintendent came in and made the 
same remark. Then I turned round and 
said to him : ' I want you to understand 
that I am second to no one in this Institu- 
tion except yourself, and I have borne 
with your insolence so long that I will do 
so no longer ; if it is repeated, I will re- 
port you to the managers.' The superin- 
tendent looked at me with the greatest 
astonishment, but my reply had just the 
effect that Mr. Cleveland said it would 
have. I never had any further trouble 
with the obnoxious superintendent, nor 
did he assume such a manner toward me 
or Mr. Cleveland any more. 

" After young Cleveland left the Insti- 
tution I myself remained until 1858. I 



20 A LIFE OF OROVEB CLEVELAND. 

never heard from liim or about him until 
lie was nominated for Governor in 1882, 
while Mayor of Buffalo. But he took 
occasion the first time he heard from me 
to show his kindly feeling. While he was 
Govei-nor one of my friends gave me a sort 
of benefit, and sent an invitation to the 
Governor. He immediately wrote back 
expressing regret at his inability to attend, 
but saying : ' I remember my old friend 
Fanny Crosby very w^ell,' and in further 
token of his remembrance he sent to the 
friend managing the alfair a neat little sum 
of money. 

" I have always regretted that I did not 
keep up a correspondence with him after 
he became Governor or President ; but in 
both cases I felt that, as I had neglected 
him for so many years, it would not seem 
just the right thing to open a correspond- 
ence with him then, because it might look 
as though I wanted to court favor. So I 
never met him again until at Lakewood 
last winter. 

"I cannot say that I have been sur- 
prised at his rise to prominence and great- 



ANGE8TR T AND EARL Y LIFE. 2 1 

ness. I always felt that lie was a man far 
above the average, both intellectually and 
morally. He seemed to me to have great 
possibilities, so that one who came in con- 
tact with him in an intimate way, as I had 
an opportunity to do by reason of official 
association with him, would have predicted 
for him a successful career. 

" I do not think that he looked upon his 
teaching work as other than preparatory for 
the more serious struggles of life. But he 
did his duty then, in a humble position, as 
conscientiously and as well as he has shown 
his ability to do it since in the large and 
important responsibilities thrust upon him. 

" While he was Governor he made a 
visit to the Institution in company with 
the late Augustus Schell, who was one of 
the managers during Mr. Cleveland's term 
of work there. Afterward, when I went 
to the Institution, I heard many of the in- 
mates, some who had been there as pupils 
in his day, say:- ^Well, although Grover 
Cleveland rose to great power he did not 
forget the Institution of the Blind, and we 
all praise him for it.' 



22 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

"It seems very odd to me to recall after 
nearly forty years the injunction of liis 
older brother, William, to me. The 
brothers were very close friends and asso- 
ciates in spite of the fact that William was 
several years the elder. He always showed 
his desire to protect his younger brother, 
and would not allow anybody to be un- 
generous or unjust to him. When they 
were first there together the younger 
brother was petted a good deal. Natu- 
rally, he grew out of this to some extent 
toward the close of the joint association 
there, and yet I recall with pleasure how 
William, when he was to be absent for a 
time, would say to me : ^ Well, I know you 
will be kind to my little brother' — a 
fatherly sort of feeling — something quite 
in consonance with the beautiful character 
of William Cleveland, who, even as a young 
man, was an exemplary Christian ; gener- 
ous to everyone in his class, just in every- 
thing he did. I could not speak too highly 
of either of them." 



AS STUDENT AND LA WrEB. 23 

CHAPTER 11. 

AS STUDENT AND LAWYEE. 

Upon liis return to liis mother's home, in 
the autumn of 1854, the young man began 
to think of making an independent career 
for himself. It has ah-eady been seen that 
he had formed his phms for becoming a 
lawyer. He sought congenial and remuner- 
ative work in the larger towns of Utica and 
Syracuse, but without encouragement. It 
w^as then that he resolved to go to Cleve- 
land, O., a town named for one of his family. 
He stopped at Buffalo to see his uncle, 
Lewis F. Allen, then and long afterward a 
well-known farmer, who was engaged in the 
compilation each year of what was known 
as ^' The American Short-Horn Herd Book." 
The young man was easily persuaded to 
remain and assist his uncle, and so gave up 
the trip further west. It was this incident 
that fixed his residence at Buffalo, and en- 
abled him to make that city the field of 
professional success and the wonderful po- 
litical career which carried him, within so 



24 A LIFE OFGROVER CLEVELAND. 

short a time, to the highest office in the gift 
of his countrymen. 

By the help of liis uncle the young man 
was enabled to get a place as a student in 
the office of Bo wen &j\ Rogers, then and 
subsequently one of the leading firms of 
lawyers in the western part of the State 
of New York. Here he began his legal 
studies, living with his uncle, some distance 
away, and assisting in the compilation of 
the ^^ Herd Book," which had then begun 
its course as an annual publication. In 
1855 the compensation of the office boy 
had reached the sum of $4 a week, and 
Mr. Cleveland, in his days of power and 
influence, has often recounted the fact that 
all this was paid out each recurring week 
for board. But he was able and 'willing 
to do hard work, and the"^first' appearance 
of his name in print was perhaps a brief 
reference in the "Herd Book" for 1861, in 
which his uncle made the following: ac- 
knowledgment : 

''In the compilation of the second, third, 
fourth, and fifth volumes of this work, I 
take pleasure in expressing my acknowledg- 



A8 STUDENT AND LA WYEU. 25 

ments to the kindness, indastiy, and ability 
of my young friend and kinsman, Grover 
Cleveland, Esq., a gentleman of the legal 
profession, who has kindly assisted my la- 
bors in correcting and arranging the jDedi- 
gr^es for publication ; and to him is a por- 
tion of the credit due for the very creditable 
display which our American sliort-horns 
make before the agricultural public." 



It was in connection with this work 
that a new opportunity was afforded the 
young man for getting an insight into 
that plain life which he understands so 
well and which he lauds so often. Some 
time after he had begun the study of the 
law he secured rooms with an old school- 
mate from Fayetteville in the old Southern 
Hotel in Buffalo, which was then the re- 
sort for drovers and farmers. These plain 
and sensible people were perhaps sur- 
prised to find so much knowledge of their 
own business in a young law student, in, 
what was to them, a large city ; but his 
training in the country, and his work with 
his uncle, had given him this to such a degree 
that he was able without effort to impress 
himself upon the drovers and farmers as 



26 A LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 

an expert iu their business and to gain 
from them that accurate knowledge of 
many kinds of men so useful to its 
possessor. 

His life at this time was not out of the 
common run. He was a hard student, not 
only of _ his profession, but of the best 
literature as well. He continued here the 
habits that he had formed in his own 
home, and while away from it in the In- 
stitution for the Blind, in New York. 
He shirked no duties that fell to him, and 
did the work of each day as well as he 
could. He thus fixed the habit of 
thoroughness in everything he did; some- 
thing that has enabled him to execute the 
great duties confided to him by his fellow- 
citizens with comparative ease to himself. 

He ^was admitted to the bar in May, 
1859. He did not immediately begin to 
practice law on his own account, but re- 
mained for four years longer with his pre- 
ceptors, finally reaching the position of 
chief clerk. It has been recorded by those 
with whom he associated that he won 
their admiration by his industry, courage^ 



AS STUDENT AND LAWYER. 27 

and honesty. They declared him to be 
thorough in everything that he undertook : 
that he mastered every subject he dealt 
with in all its bearings, and then, as no^v, 
made up his mind for himself, and, having 
done so, could not be swerved from his 
conviction of the right. Even they, his pre- 
dominant quality of intellectual integrity 
often attracted attention and commanded 
respect, even when the efforts of more bril- 
liant men might be forgotten. His salary 
as chief clerk was the modest one of $600 
a year in the beginning. This was in- 
creased year by year until, in the latter 
part of 1862, it had become $1000. He 
had then reached the age of twenty -five. 

Up to this time the young lawyer had 
not indulged any political aspirations. 
In 1858, w^hen he reached his majority, 
he had cast his first vote for the Demo- 
cratic party ; but he had done more. In 
accordance with the custom of those times 
he took his place at the polls, and through- 
out the day distributed ballots by the 
side of the veterans of the party. He be- 
lieved firmly in the principles of his party, 



58 A LIFE OF GlWVFli CLEVELAND. 

and thinking that it ought to win he un- 
dertook to do what he could to help it. 
And the custom thus established upon 
attaining his majority became a habit with 
him, one that he kept up regularly un- 
til his election as Governor. On each 
election day he would go to the polls and 
take his place, ballots in hand, remaining 
as a volunteer helper to his party and its 
candidates until the polls were closed, and 
in every exciting political canvass he 
marched in the procession when a great 
Democratic demonstration was made. 

On the 1st of January, 1863, Grover 
Cleveland began his first independent work 
in his profession, by leaving the office of 
his preceptors and accepting an ofllce that 
was professional as well as political. He 
had been appointed Assistant District 
Attorney of Erie County. In oj'der to do 
so he gave up his salary of $1000 a year 
to accept one of $600. He was in no way 
dissatisfied with his office work or unduly 
ambitious, but he saw that a place in his 
profession would be reached much more 
quickly and siu'ely by the training and ex- 



AS STUDENT AND LA WYER. 20 

perience of such a place. He was tlie only 
assistant in tlie office, and upon liim fell 
most of the work, such as the filing of cases, 
the drawing of indictments, and the trial 
of many causes in the courts. The discipline 
and training he had gained as a student 
and teacher combined to give him much 
advantage in his profession. It was then 
that he fixed the habit of working late into 
the night, something that has clung to him 
during all the years of his political work. 
His position gave him confidence and en- 
abled him to make a wide acquaintance 
among the people of the country towns, 
then, as now, important elements in the 
political life of Erie County. It also 
attracted to him the attention of clients 
and of his fellow-lawyers. 

During his term in this office he was so 
busily engaged w^ith the duties of it that 
when he was drafted as a soldier he could 
not leave his work to enter the army, and 
sent a substitute instead. In a family 
council it had been decided that as he was 
earning enough money to make his contri- 
butions valuable to the familv he should 



30 A LIFE OF GROVFR CLEVELAND. 

not enter the army. Two of his brothers, 
Richard Cecil and Lewis Frederick, early 
entered the army in 1861 and served 
throughout the whole of the war. It may 
be interesting to add that the money paid 
as a bounty to his substitute was borrowed 
from his superior, the District Attorney, 
and that it was not until the expiration of 
his term, and after the war itself had closed, 
that he was able to save enough money to 
pay back the loan. 

It was inevitable that younc^ Cleveland 
should ^ be drawn into politics by his ser- 
vice as District Attorney. From this time 
he was recognized as a rising figure* in 
Democratic politics, and so at the expira- 
tion of the term of his superior officer, 
Cyrenius C. Torrance, it was natural that 
his party should turn to him as a can- 
didate for District Attorney. By this 
time he had become well known and 
popular in the county, and the Repub- 
licans recognized that in spite of their 
great majority they had no easy task to 
defeat him. At first their attention was 
directed to a lawyer then residing in Erie 



AS STUDENT AND LA WYER. 31 

County, Horace Boies by name. He was 
some years older than Mr. Cleveland, but 
in many respects they much resembled 
each other. After the managers had 
cast about among themselves they con- 
cluded at first to nominate Boies, although 
he was then comparatively unknown, 
even much less so than his op- 
ponent, whose nomination was already 
assured. It was in this way that two men 
now prominent in the councils of the 
Democratic party — one of whom was then 
a member of the opposing party — came 
to know each other. Thus it was that 
Grover Cleveland came into contact with 
Horace Boies, no^v and for some years the 
Democratic Governor of Iowa. 

Among the intimate personal friends of 
Mr. Cleveland at that time was Lyman K. 
Bass, a young Republican lawyer, after- 
ward a member of cong-ress. At this 
time, when the Republicans concluded 
that they must select their strongest can- 
didate, Bass and Cleveland were not only 
close personal friends, but room-mates. 
One night the former came home and said, 



32 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

"Well, Cleve, I Lave been offered the 
nomination for District Attorney against 
you." In reply lie was asked, " Well, why 
don't you take it ? " And the result was 
that he did ; and that he was elected by a 
narrow majority. 

His friends even now recall the 
good humor with which Mr. Cleveland 
took his defeat, and how he turned his 
attention at once to his profession as 
an independent practitioner. He did this 
by forming a partnership ^vith Isaac 
V. Vanderpool, and about tlie same 
time declined the appointment of As- 
sistant District Attorney, tendered him 
by the late AVilliam Dorsheimer, then 
just appointed by President Johnson as 
United States Attorney for the Northern 
District of New York. A little later he 
associated himself with A. P. Lanins: and 
Oscar Folsom, the latter one of his closest 
friends, who had himself accepted the 
office declined by Cleveland. The name 
of the firm was Laning, Cleveland Sz> 
Folsom. This firm soon attained a high 
po;u(ion at the bar of Buffalo, and Mr. 



AS STUDENT AND LA WTER. 33 

Cleveland liad a cliauce to demonstrate 
how well he had profited by his experi- 
ence in an important pnblic place. 

This association continued until 1870, 
when Mr. Cleveland's friends offered him 
the nomination for Sheriff of Erie County. 
He hesitated for some time about accept- 
ing this office ; his reluctance being due 
to the fact that it was not common for 
lawyers to accept the office of Sheriff', but 
he finally concluded that there were many 
reasons why he should consider this matter. 
He had worked hard ever since he 
was a boy of seventeen, and he himself 
declared he had had so little time for read- 
ing, and for thorough professional study, 
that he thought the Sheriff''s office, by tak- 
ing him out of practice for a time and still 
keeping him about the courts in profes- 
sional relations, would afford him consider- 
able leisure for this coveted improvement. 
There was, too, another important element, 
in that it would enable him to make and 
save a modest competence. Stating the 
case to his friends in this way he took their 
advice, accepted the nomination, and was 



34 A LIFE OF ROVER CLEVELAND. 

elected. He performed the duties of the 
office well and conscientiously. The result 
was that upon the expiration of his term of 
office, on January 1, 1874, he returned to 
the practice of the law a stronger and 
broader man than he had been before, and 
at once took a higher place than he had 
ever held or than he would, perhaps, have 
attained in the same time if he had con- 
tinued to practice uninterruptedly. 

When his term of office expired he 
formed a partnership with his old rival, 
Lyman K. Bass, and a younger associate, 
now known as one of the most thorough 
lawyers in the western part of the State of 
New York and one of the most influen- 
tial men — Wilson S. Bissell. With some 
changes in personnel the firm was main- 
tained until Mr. Cleveland's inauguration 
as Governor, in January, 1883. 

By this time he had become one of the 
best lawyers of his city and of the western 
part of the State. Careful attention to 
every detail of his work, a conscientious 
desire to do his duty to his clients, and to 
the public, unwearied industry — these were 



^.S' STUDENT AND LAWYER. 35 

the principal traits tliat commended him to 
his clients and to the* public. He main- 
tained his interest in politics, though he 
gave no attention to it so far as seeking 
place was concerned. Occasionally, he was 
a delegate to a State convention, and he 
kept up his habit of activity at the polls as 
well as at the primaries of his party. But 
he was not looked upon as an ambitious 
man ; nor, it may be said with truth, would 
the public have looked to him as the one 
man in his city who would be likely to 
have great responsibilities thrust upon him. 

His success in politics has obscured to 
some degree his work as a lawyer, and in 
order that there may be a better under- 
standing of this the author has been for- 
tunate enough to secure from his former 
partner and close friend, Wilson S. Bissell, 
an estimate of his professional work. He 
writes : 

'' Buffalo, N. Y., August 1, 1892. 
" Dear Mr. Parker : 

"My acquaintance ^vith Mr. Cleveland 
began in August, 1869. I had just 
graduated from Yale and made application 



36 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

for and was admitted to a clerkship in 
the office of Laning, Cleveland & Folsom, 
the firm of which he was a member, and 
which was then just organized. The firm 
did a very large business. They were the 
attorneys for the New York Central and 
the other Vanderbilt railroads centering at 
Buffalo, and they had a large miscellane- 
ous practice as well. I was one of the six 
clerks employed by them. They defended 
the New York Central Eailroad in a class 
of suits brought to recover penalties for 
overcharge of fare. These suits became a 
very remarkable class of litigation, aggre- 
gating more than three thousand in num- 
ber. 

" I soon found that Mr. Cleveland was 
the ^ working member.' Ijaning and Fol- 
som were both brilliant men, but Cleve- 
land was undoubtedly the most profound 
la^vyer and was the mainstay of the office. 
He was generally the first one in the office 
in the morning and the last one out of it at 
night, and all the hours of these long days 
w^ere devoted with patience and zeal to the 
work he found before him. 



AS STUDENT AND LA WYER. 37 

" He had already attained promiuence at 
the bar, the result of no influence or re- 
lationships or of adventitious circumstance, 
but of patient industry and of down- 
right — and always upright — hard work. 
And so, even then, he was of the lawyers 
of his years facile ])rinceps. His further 
achievements as a lawyer, which brought 
him into the very front rank of his profes- 
sion, were only the added and natural 
results of his untiring industry and energy. 
To these the other disadvantages of 
limited education and early mental train- 
ing also yielded. 

" How well and how encouraging it 
would be to the younger struggling la^v- 
yers of to-day if they could appreciate 
the exact truthfulness of these statements, 
and take the lesson of it to themselves ! 
True, he was endowed with a great fund of 
good common sense, and he was honest — 
honest with himself, honest with his client, 
honest with his subject. He thus became, 
mentally, rather judicial than partisan, and 
he would have made as able and capable 
a Chief Justice as he was a President. 



38 A LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 

" In the trial of a cause be neither relied 
on ^ genius ' nor the inspiration of the mo- 
ment to help him out, but upon most 
careful and painstaking preparation of the 
case in advance and the anticipation of 
every possible adverse contingency. Be- 
fore the trial he was always timid and self- 
distrustful ; once pushed or dragged into 
court by his client, however, he was not 
only part and parcel of the case, but bold 
and self-reliant ; and through much prac- 
tice he acquired great skill and sagacity in 
marshaling his facts before the jury. 

'^ During a trial he would devote himself 
to the case absolutely and completely, 
whether it was large or small, whether 
with fee or without, and for a rich cli- 
ent or for a poor one. The noon hour 
was, for him, always an opportunity for 
further study and preparation — not for 
eating — and the hours of the night, not 
infrequently the whole night, a further 
opportunity. 

''And so he honestly bought and paid 
for success with honest work. In an ad- 
dress before the bar on the occasion of the 



AS STUDENT AND LA WYER. 39 

death of his devoted personal friend, Oscar 
Folsom, referring to his qualities as a 
lawyer, he said : ' In the practice of his 
profession, and in the solution of legal 
questions, he clearly saw which was right 
and just, and then he expected to find the 
law leading him directly there.' This with 
truthfulness could and should be said of 
Mr. Cleveland himself. 

" In those days it was the habit of the 
judges of that locality, more than now, 
when a close legal question would arise in 
a trial, to call for an opinion upon it in 
open court from some lawyer in the court- 
room not engaged in the case. So good 
and well recognized was Cleveland's judg- 
ment, and so great his legal attainments, 
that he would almost invariably be the 
lawyer thus consulted, whenever he hap- 
pened to be present. 

^' ' The law is a jealous mistress,' but 
there was never occasion in Cleveland's 
case to suggest a lack of devotion. Of 
course it would have been impossible to 
yield such devotion to his profession if he 
had not loved it ; but he loved his pro- 



A 

40 A LIFE OF QROVER CLEVELAND. 

fessioiial work, found liis greatest pleasure 
and satisfaction in it, and lie loved also the 
study of the law as a science. 

" This fact will serve to explain the 
interruption in his professional career 
which he permitted when he became 
Sheriff. His opportunity for considering 
that ste^^ was less, perhaps, than of any 
important act of his life. The circum- 
stances were these : Thei'e was an impor- 
tant local ticket to be nominated, and there 
seemed a fair opportunity to overcome a 
normally large adverse majority by the 
selection of a strong combination of candi- 
dates. Cleveland was popular, and had 
made a splendid nm for District Attorney 
of the county not long before. On the 
day before the nominating convention was 
to be held it was suggested that Cleveland 
should take the nomination. Such a con- 
tingency had never entered his mind, and 
he at first declined to listen to the sugges- 
tion. Party managers then surrounded 
him, and at length successfully urged upon 
him the importance of the subject as a 
party matter, and his duty and obligation 



AS STUDENT AND LAWYER. '41 

to his party. Yet in connection witli his 
reluctant assent was the consideration, ex- 
pressed to me that day, that if he should 
be elected it would afford him a longed-for 
and splendid opportunity to study law. 

"His partners w^ere loath to lose him, 
both because they w^ere personally much 
attached to him and because they had come 
to know and rely upon his great strength 
and ability as a lawyer. He had had the 
laboring oar in all their more important 
litigations, and was in the midst of great 
activity and usefulness. He was conserva- 
tiv^e by nature and a safe counselor. In- 
deed, if he erred at all, it was on the side 
of conservatism and safety. 

"Mr. Cleveland was in the best sense 
a successful lawyer. He never belonged 
to the class of ' money-making ' lawyers, 
although he often received large fees for his 
professional services. He always met his 
personal obligations promptly, and he ab- 
horred debt ; but he never had any deiire 
to accumulate a fortune, and he was gen- 
erous to a degree. I recall the fact that, 
on resuming the practice of law after the 



42 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

expiration of Lis term as Sheriff, his first 
act was to lend a considerable sum of 
money to a poor client in distress. His 
generosity was evidenced not alone by 
direct gifts of money, but by professional 
advice and service. He tried many a case 
^vithout fee or the expectation of it, and 
often intervened to prevent the doing of 
injustice because of his hatred of injustice. 
A notable instance of this was his devotion 
to the case of Flannig^an before Governor 
Cornell. Cleveland's first relation with the 
case was after the man had been sentenced 
to be hanged, and despite Cornell's well- 
known disinclination to exercise the pardon 
power, he secured a commutation of tlie 
sentence to life imprisonment. 

" It seemed to him always a pleasure as 
well as a duty to give aid and counsel to 
the younger members of the bar, and many 
a successful lawyer of to-day in Buffalo 
will recall and attest the readiness and 
chferfulness with which he aided in com- 
plicated legal situations, or assisted as 
counsel in the trial of causes, accepting for 
himself at most nothino; but nominal fees. 



AS STUDENT AND LA WYER. 43 

"On January 1, 1874, lie resumed the 
practice of law, becoming a member of the 
iirm of Bass, Cleveland <fe Bissell. Mr. 
Bass was then a member of Congress, and 
by reason of failing health he removed to 
Colorado to reside at the expiration of his 
term of office, so that Mr. Cleveland be- 
came practically the head of the firm at 
once. The business of the office was large 
and active, consisting of a general miscel- 
laneous practice, and he applied himself to 
it as assiduously as ever during the ensu- 
ing eight years. This was the period of 
his greatest activity and usefulness as a 
lawyer. He tried and argued cases in 
all the courts of the State and in the 
District and Circuit Courts of the United 
States. He was one of the counsel for 
the plaintiff who secured the largest ver- 
dict ever rendered by a jury in Western 
New York— upwards of $240,000. He 
worked incessantly, and his vacation 
period never exceeded ten days in t|[e 
year. 

" He was engaged in the trial of a case 
in court in October, 1881, when he was again 



44 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

called upon by his party to do further 
public service by accepting the nomination 
for Mayor of Buffalo, which was then ten- 
dered and urged upon him. He yielded to 
this demand the more readily because he 
saw before hi in not only an opportunity to 
serve his party, but to perform a j^^^blic 
duty, and, although he remmned a partner in 
the law firm of Cleveland, Bissell & Sicard 
during the following year, still, with char- 
acteristic regard for and conscientious de- 
votion to the performance of official duty, 
his personal interests as a lawyer were set 
aside for a time, and, as events proved, for 
seven years. 

" Two things remain to be said in por- 
traying Mr. Cleveland's career as a lawyer : 
One, that in all his varied i-elations Avith 
clients, lawyers, and courts his every act 
was characterized by the highest sense of 
honor and by the most delicate apprecia- 
tion of and compliance with all the rules 
of professional ethics ; and the other, that 
every professional engagement, great or 
small, received the best judgment, thought, 
and energy of which he was capable» 



AS MA TOR OF B UFFAL 0. 45 

Nothing lie undertook was slighted ; tliere= 
fore all his work was done well. 
" Yours sincerely, 

"W. S.BlSSELL." 



CHAPTER III. 

AS MAYOR OF BUFFALO. 

The people of Buffalo had reached such 
a stage in municipal development that 
they were ready to welcome just such a man 
as Grover Cleveland had proved himself 
to be. It was growing rapidly in popula- 
tion and wealth, as well as in compara- 
tive position. It had long been the princi- 
pal business center of the western part of 
the State of New York. At the terminus 
of the Erie Canal and the head of lake 
navigation, it had obtained an importance 
which its early settlers, and even its later 
residents, scarcely appreciated. 

It was not unnatural, either, that it 
should develop the abuses apparently in- 
separable from the government of Ameri- 
can municipalities. It had grown so 



46 A LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 

rsi]}id]y from a village to a town, and from 
a town to a city, that tlie methods of its 
earlier days had been outgrown, and yet, 
neither the people nor the system had been 
thoroughly readjusted to the new sur- 
roundings. For many years political con- 
ditions had been bad. The worst practices 
incident to municipal maladministration 
had obtained a foothold. Politics had got 
into the business of the city, and the busi- 
ness of the city had, to a certain extent, 
been given over to politics. It was Repub- 
lican by a substantial majority, but there 
was then, as now, a large number of Inde- 
pendents among the voters. The people 
saw clearly enough that, if the conditions 
then existing were permitted to continue, 
their city would suffer not only in devel 
opment but in credit. 

So, when in the autumn of 1881 they 
cast about them for a proper man to fill the 
office of Mayor, the Democrats turned their 
attention to the quiet lawyer, who, after 
filling with acceptance the various offices 
to w^hich he had been called, had returned 
at once to his professional Avork, Much 



AS MA YOR OF B UFFALO. 4 7 

against his will, lie was nominated by the 
Democratic City Convention for Mayor on 
October 25, 1881. There were a large 
number of offices to fill at this election, 
and a good many elements to be satisfied. 
The matter was broached to Mr. Cleveland, 
and he declined at first to consider it seri- 
ously. Finally, when importunity became 
stronger, he consented to accept the nomi- 
nation in case the convention would select 
a ticket that should be satisfactory in every 
way to the reform element in the Demo- 
cratic party and among the citizens. As 
the result of this, the ordinary rules of 
procedure were reversed, and nominations 
were made for all the minor offices before 
a candidate for Mayor was chosen. In 
this way a thoroughly good ticket was 
secured, questionable elements were rele- 
gated to the rear, and the candidate for 
Mayor was enabled to make his canvass 
upon the high ground of promoting the 
interests of his city, and of keeping his 
party up to the highest possible standard. 
It is not my purpose to quote largely 
from Mr. Cleveland's speeches and let- 



48 A LIFE OF OROVEB CLEVELAND. 

ters.* They have now been made accessible 
in permanent form, so that what may be de- 
nominated the old-fashioned documentary 
sketch is no longer a necessity. But it 
will, perhaps, be pertinent to set out in this 
place two or three paragraphs from his 
speech accepting the nomination for Mayor 
of Buffalo. 

After emphasizing his reluctance to ac- 
cept the nomination, but insisting that " be- 
cause I am a Democrat, and because I 
think no one has a right at this time, of all 
others, to consult his own inclinations as 
against the call of his party and fellow- 
citizens, and hoping that I may be of use to 
you in your efforts to inaugurate a better 
rule in municipal alfairs, I accept the nomi- 
nation tendered me," he proceeded to lay 
down the principles upon which he thought 
an office like that of Mayor of a city such 
as Buffalo should be conducted. He did 
this in words which, taking into considera- 
tion his later career, ought to be remem- 
bered. He said : 

* ' ' The Writings and Speeches of Gro ver Cleveland. " 
Edited by Geoi-ge F. Parker. New York : Cassell 
Publishing Company. 



AS MAYOR OF BUFFALO. 49 

^' I believe that mucli can be done to re- 
lieve our citizens from their j^resent load of 
taxation, and that a more rigid scrutiny of 
all public expenditures will result in a great 
saving to the community. I also believe 
that some extravagance in our city govern- 
ment may be corrected without injury to 
the public service. 

"There is, or there should be, no reason 
why the affairs of our city should not be 
managed with the same care and the same 
economy as private interests. And when we 
consider that public officials are the trustees 
of the people, and hold their places and exer- 
cise their powers for the benefit of the 
people, there should be no higher inducement 
to a faithful and honest discharge of public 
duty. 

" These are very old truths, but I cannot 
forbear to speak in this strain to-day, be- 
cause I believe the time has come when the 
people loudly demand that these principles 
shall be, sincerely and without mental reser- 
vation, adopted as a rule of conduct. And I 
am satisfied that the result of the campaign 
upon which we enter to-day will demon- 
strate that the citizens of Buffalo will not 
tolerate the man or the party that has been 
unfaithful to public trusts." 

He closed his address by pledging him- 
self that, "If elected to the position for 
which you have nominated ine, I shall do 
my whole duty to the j)arty, but none 



oO A LIFE OF OliOVER CLEVELAND. 

the less, I hope, to tlie citizens of Buf- 
falo." 

It may not be inapt to compare a single 
phrase in the address just alluded to when 
lie was a candidate for Mayor of his city 
with one of his latest utterances after he 
had served liis country in the highest office 
within the gift of its people. He said to 
the convention that nominated him : 

■' Let us, then, in all sincerity, promise the 
people an improvement in our mmiicipal 
affairs, and if the opportunity is offered us, 
as it surely will be, let us then faithfully 
keep that promise. By this means, and by 
this means alone, can our success rest upon 
a firm foundation and our party ascendancy 
be permanently assured." 

Nearly eleven years after, in the pres- 
ence of 20,000 of his countrymen, he ac- 
cepted for the third time the call of his 
party to become the candidate for Presi- 
dent of the United States. In the speech 
made upon that w^onderf ul occasion — some- 
thing that in the future will be looked 
upon as historic — he said : 

"Let us tell the people plainly and hon- 
estly what we believe and how we propose to 
serve the interests of the entire country, and 



AS MAYOR OF BUFFALO. 51 

then let us, after the manner of true De- 
mocracy, rely upon the thoughtf ulness and 
patriotism of our fellow-countrymen." 

In the canvass that followed, Mr. Cleve- 
land was able to command not only the 
united support of his own partisans but of 
a considerable element among his oppo- 
nents. Some of the most influential of the 
Republican newspapers either gave him 
their support openly or refused to oppose 
him in the usual bitter way. The move- 
ment in his favor became one full of en- 
thusiasm. The candidate declared at the 
beginning of it that he would not permit 
the use of money for the influencing of 
votes and that he would make no canvass 
in the saloons. But he neglected no legiti- 
mate means to deserve and command the 
support of the people. As a result of a 
canvass begun and carried on in this spirit, 
Mr. Cleveland was elected Mayor by a ma- 
jority of 3500, the largest up to that time 
ever given to a candidate for that office in 
Buffalo. He was not only successful him- 
self, but carried the entire Democratic ticket 
through by good and sufficient majorities. 



52 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

Comiug into politics and into an execu- 
tive position under such circumstances, he 
began to prepare himself for the important 
and responsible duties that he must assume 
within a few weeks. He put his law busi- 
ness into such condition that he might 
intrust it mainly to his partners, and pre- 
pared to give up practically his whole time 
to his work as Mayor. He was fortunate 
here, as he has been during his career, in 
securing a most efficient private secretary 
in Harmon S. Cutting, who was a devoted 
friend, a lawyer of excellent standing and 
large experience, who had had excellent 
opportunities for obtaining a knowledge of 
municipal law. 

The new Mayor entered upon his duties 
in the spirit shown in every other place 
that he has held thus far. He looked 
upon the promises made at the time of his 
nomination not merely as something by 
which he had been able to secure his 
election, but as something to be redeemed. 
He saw no reason why the business of a 
city — that is, the paving, lighting, the 
cleaning of the streets, and the general con- 



AS MA YOB OF B UFFALO. 5 3 

duct of its affairs — should not be con- 
ducted as economically and as conscien- 
tiously as if tliey were the private concerns 
of the men to whom they were intrusted. 
He thought first of the city; next, perhaps, 
of his party — recognizing that it was im- 
possible to escape party responsibilities ; 
and last, of himself, except so far as he 
reached the determination to do his duty 
without fear or favor. 

He entered upon his official duties Janu- 
ary 1, 1882. No formal inauguration was 
necessary ; but on the following day he sent 
to the Common Council an elaborate mes- 
sage, which may be said to bear a close re- 
semblance to what might be termed an inau- 
gural message from a Governor or President. 
In this document, the first elaborate one 
by which he is known to the public as an 
executive officer, and in which he indulged 
in that plain speaking, the knowledge of 
which has become so universal, he said : 

'' We hold the money of the people in our 
hands to be used for their purposes and 
to farther their interests as members of the 
municipality, and it is quite apparent that 



54 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND, 

when any part of the funds which the tax- 
payers have thus intrusted to us is diverted 
to other purposes, or when, by design or 
neglect, we allow a greater sum to be applied 
to any municipal purpose than is necessary, 
we have, to that extent, violated our duty. 
There surely is no difference in his duties and 
obligations, whether a person is intrusted 
with the money of one man or many. And 
yet it sometimes appears as though the 
officeholder assumes that a different rule of 
fidelity prevails between him and the tax- 
payers than that which should regulate his 
conduct when, as an individual, he holds the 
money of his neighbor. 

"It seems to me that a successful and 
faithful administration of the government 
of our city may be accomplished by bear- 
ing in mind that we are the trustees and 
agents of our fellow-citizens, holding their 
funds in sacred trust, to be expended for 
their benefit ; that we should at all times be 
prepared to render an honest account to 
them touching the manner of its expenditure, 
and that the affairs of the city should be 
conducted, as far as possible, upon the same 
principles as a good business man manages 
his private concerns." 

He then assured the legislative depart- 
ment of the city government that, so far as 
it was in his power, he would co-operate 
wdth them in securing the faithful per- 
formance of official duty in every depart- 



AS MAYOR OF BUFFALO. 55 

ment of tlie government intrusted to them. 
In tlie declarations above quoted there is 
something of the sentiment that has now 
become familiar to all the people in the 
land. It was refreshing, even in a compar- 
atively small city, to find such a lofty 
appreciation of the duties incumbent upon 
a man w^ho held an important executive 
office. The people of Buffalo saw that 
they had found a man far above the aver- 
age — one who was likely to begin a work 
which would revolutionize the government 
of their city. 

In the same message, proceeding from 
the enunciation of general principles to de- 
tails, he demonstrated that he had gained a 
close knowledge of the different depart- 
ments of the government he was to admin- 
ister. He hadjgone so far as to discover 
how much the city had paid for the con- 
struction of plank sidewalks, showing that 
the same kind of work was done for 
private citizens at a price nearly one- third 
less, and he cited this, which many an offi- 
cial would have overlooked, as an example 
of the difference between work for the 



56 A LIFE OF Q ROVER CLEVELAND. 

public and work for individuals, and in- 
sisted that lie saw no good reason wliy the 
city should not let its contracts as cheaply 
as anybody. He suggested a method for 
overcoming this difficulty by providing 
that all work of this kind should be let 
to the lowest bidder, and expressed the 
oj)inion that the adoption of this plan, 
with a thorough system of inspection, 
would enable the city to get what it 
wanted, and what it paid for, at reason- 
able prices. 

In like manner he went carefully into 
the question of the cleaning of the streets, 
and !in this matter, too, suggested plans 
which would correct the then existing 
abuses. He found that extravagance pre- 
vailed in the repairing and refurnishing of 
public school buildings, and so he not only 
adjured the Common Council to exercise a 
reasonable economy, but suggested that 
committees of citizens in the several dis- 
tricts might, if they would take the work 
upon themselves, be able to avoid much 
useless expenditure. 

He devoted his attention to the abuses 



AS MA YOB OF BUFFALO. 57 

incident to tlie public printing and insisted 
that it should not be given to newspapers 
as a reward for party service, or appear 
merely as "an item of political patronage." 

He found that the duties performed by 
the City Auditor were looked upon as 
largely perfunctory, and that, instead of 
investigating carefully every account pre- 
sented to him, he deemed his duty done 
when he audited and verified the footings. 
He insisted that this officer "should 
inquire into the merits of the claims pre- 
sented to him." He went so far as to insist 
that the city offices should not be closed 
at the early hour of the day then usual, 
without regard to the interests of the 
public. 

Taken all in all, the first message of the 
new Mayor was like a fresh breeze blow- 
ing through the fever-infected district of a 
city. Disclaiming any desire to dictate to 
the Common Council as to the perform- 
ance of its duties, and recognizing that the 
responsibility of legislation remained with 
it, he nevertheless gave them an amount 
of information that was scarcely to be 



58 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

expected from a man new to tbe duties of 
an office, and that, too, one who had not 
been known to give special attention to the 
affairs of his city. 

He was soon, however, to give evidence 
not only of a close knowledge of the con- 
dition of the business intrusted to him, but 
the Common Council found that he had a 
faculty for finding out all the weak spots 
in their conduct of the public affairs. 
Within a fortnight after his inaugural 
message had been sent to the Common 
Council, the Mayor took occasion to show 
that his opinion on the question of patron- 
age for newspapers was something not 
merely to be spoken of on such occasions 
and to be put aside in practice. So, when 
three German newspapers were designated 
to do the city printing, at an expense of 
$800 a year each, he vetoed the resolution, 
in s]3ite of the fact that the German popu- 
lation of Buffalo bore a very important 
relation to the entire number of its 
inhabitants. He insisted that there was 
no occasion for spending the people's 
money in publishing a synopsis of the 



AS MA YOB OF B UFFALO. 5 9 

Comicirs proceedings, and in the course of 
the message he laid down a principle often 
forgotten by executive officers and legis- 
lators. He said : 

^'The German newspapers mentioned in 
the resolution depend for their success upon 
the amount and value of the news or infor- 
mation they furnish to their patrons. We 
will assume that some account of the pro- 
ceedings of the Common Council — in other 
words, that a synopsis of such proceed- 
ings — is of importance and interest to their 
readers. I am quite sure we may safely 
calculate that, from motives of self-interest, 
the proprietors of these newspapers will 
publish a synopsis much more satisfactory 
to their subscribers than any which the City 
Clerk would be apt to prepare, and they 
would do so for their own profit and without 
any compensation from the city." 

He characterized this appropriation as 
coming " very near being a most objection- 
able subsidy," which nobody ought to en- 
courage, and which he (iid not believe the 
people of the city would tolerate. In this 
case he began to carry out the policy since 
followed of not asking how it would affect 
his political friends or their interests — one 



60 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

of the papers affected by the resolution 
being Democratic. But most important of 
all, lie emphasized the policy so often over- 
looked, that, left to themselves, the public 
would be able to get, without expense, and 
as the result of private enterprise, those 
things so often paid for out of^ the public 
treasury. 

He continued this careful examination of 
the ordinances that came to him from the 
Common Council. Scarcely a week passed 
that he did not send to that body a veto 
message, often expressed in language so 
positive and strong that the Council scarcely 
knew how to deal with it. Every detail 
of the municipal service thus passed under 
careful examination — not by a clerk or 
private secretary, but by the official head 
*^f the city himself. He vetoed extravagant 
printing bills, provisions for extra pay for 
clerks, and gave special attention to legisla- 
tion looking to *the improvement of the 
water supply and the sewerage of the city. 
When an attempt was made to evade the 
law by dividing contracts into several parts, 
in order to escape the provision requiring 



^>S' MAYOR OF BUFFALO. 61 

advertisement, lie interposed his objection 
successfully. 

During the month of May, after assum- 
ing the duties of his office, the Common 
Council passed a resolution directing the 
City Clerk to draw a warrant on the Fourth 
of July Fund for $500, payable to the 
order of the Memorial Day Committee of 
the Grand Army of the Republic, for the 
purpose of defraying the expenses attend- 
ing a proper observation of Memorial Day. 
This brought forth one of the documents 
which came to be known in Buffalo as the 
" Plain Speech Vetoes," although the one 
containing that particular phrase was not 
issued until a month later. He contended 
that the resolutions in question were for- 
bidden by the Constitution of the State, 
as well as the charter of the city, whi(;h 
made it a misdemeanor to appropriate 
money collected for one purpose to any 
other object, and he tli^refore saw no rea- 
son why he should permit money received 
by taxation to be diverted to the celebra- 
tion of Memorial Day. In avowing his 
purpose he declared : 



62 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

' ' I deem the object of this appropriation 
a most worthy one. The efforts of our 
veteran soldiers to keep alive the memory of 
their fallen comrades certainly deserves the 
aid and encouragement of their fellow- 
citizens. We should all, I think, feel it a 
duty and a privilege to contribute to the 
funds necessary to carry out such a pur- 
pose, and I should be much disappointed if 
an appeal to our citizens for voluntary sub- 
scriptions for this patriotic object should be 
in vain; but the money so contributed 
should be a free gift of the citizens and tax- 
payers, and should not be extorted from 
them by taxation." 

The day before this message was sent 
to the Common Council he wrote to the 
Chairman of the Memorial Day Committee 
the following letter : 

'' Buffalo, May 7, 1882. 
*' John M. Farquhae, Esq., 

''Dear Sir: I have tried very hard, but 
fail to find a way, consistently to approve 
the resolution of the Common Council ap- 
propriating $500 for the observance of 
Decoration Day. 

" If my action has the effect of stopping 

the payment of this sum for the purpose, 

and you attempt to raise the necessary sum 

by subscription, you may call on me for $50. 

" Yours very trul}^ 

" Grover Cleveland." 



AS MA YOB OF BUFFALO. 63 

He thus proved his faith by his works. 
The necessary sum was quickly raised, and 
the principles which he had commended 
were successfully asserted. 

Probably nothing in his career as Mayor 
attracted wider attention than this act. 
Here was an object which the Mayor him-. 
self declared to be a worthy one. He was 
a member, too, of a party that had been 
the victim of much obloquy from its oppo- 
nents on the question of its relations to the 
Civil War ; but the leading newspapers, no«fc 
only of his own city, but of the State in 
general, without distinction of party, cor- 
dially approved his brief and plain-speak- 
ing message, and the reputation of 
Buffalo's reform Mayor began to broaden. 

But if this message had such an effect, 
it was merely preparatory to another and 
by all odds the most important veto mes- 
sage written by Mr. Cleveland during his 
term as Mayor. This concerned the clean- 
ing of the streets, and is generally known 
by the name of the '' Plain-Speech Veto." 
The Common Council passed an ordinance 
awarding the contract for cleaning the 



64 A LIFE OF GBOVER CLEVELAND. 

streets for tlie term of five years for 
$422,500. This was more than one hun- 
dred thousand dollars higher than the bid 
made by another contractor equally re- 
sponsible, and fifty thousand dollars more 
than that made by the same contractor 
only a few weeks before. In his veto 
message, which would fill little more than 
a quarter of a column of an ordinary city 
newspaper, he said : 

''This is a time for plain si^eech, and my 
objection to the action of your honorable 
body now under consideration shall be 
plainly understood. I withhold my assent 
from the same because I regard it as the cul- 
mination of a most barefaced, impudent, 
and shameless scheme to betray the interests 
of the people, and to worse than squander 
the public money. 

" I will not be misunderstood in this mat- 
ter. There are those whose votes were given 
for this resolution Avliom I cannot and will 
not suspect of a willful neglect of the inter- 
ests they are sworn to protect ; but it has 
been fully demonstrated that there are in- 
fluences in and about your honorable body 
which it behooves every honest man to watch 
and avoid with the greatest care. 

" When cool judgment rules the hour, the 
peoi^le will, I hope and believe, have no 
reason to complain of the action of your 



AS 3IA TOR OF BUFFALO. 65 

honorable body. But clumsy appeals to 
prejudice or passion, insinuations, Avith a 
Idnd of low, cheap cunning* as to the motives 
and purposes of others, and the mock heroism 
of brazen effrontery which openly declare 
that a wholesome public sentiment is to be 
set at nau^ ht, sometimes deceive and lead 
honest men o aid in the consummation of 
schemes wh.ch, if exposed, they would look 
upon with abhorrence." 

The closing paragraph of the same mes- 
sage is also interesting, as well as impor- 
tant to an understanding of the character of 
the man with whom the Common Council 
of Buffalo had to deal then, and with 
whom the American people have dealt 
since. In it he said : 

"We are fast gaining positions in the 
grades of public stewardships. There is no 
middle ground. Those who are not for the 
people, either in or out of your honorable 
body, are against them, and should be 
treated accordingly." 

It is little wonder that such sentiments 
as these, expressed with almost brutal di- 
rectness, with a force that proved to the 
public that truth lay behind them — should 
have drawn upon him a great deal of abuse 
from the men whose motives were thus ex- 



QQ A. LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

posed ; but tlie more the politicians or tlie 
jobbers undertook to misrepresent liim, 
the more strongly was the public drawn 
to this man of strong character and iron 
will. 

He found, too, that the construction of 
an intercepting sewer for the city was be- 
ing used as a basis for jobbery ; so, in mes- 
sage after message, and in veto after veto, 
he combated the measure, and was finally 
successful in saving to the cit}^ about 
$800,000, which, but for him, would have 
been expended uselessly or corruptly. 

In the same way he insisted that his 
appointments, to which then, as ever, he 
gave much careful attention, should be 
confirmed by the City Council, and a failure 
to do so in the case of the Sewage Com- 
missioners enabled him to bring the Com- 
mon Council to terms and to put this 
important service upon a permanent busi- 
ness basis. By doing this he did a lasting 
service to a great and growing city, the 
good effects of Avhich are still apparent. 

No attempt has been made to review 
fully the relations of Grover Cleveland to 



A8 MAYOR OF BUFFALO. , 67 

the Common Councii of Buffalo or to his 
administration of the duties of his office as 
the Mayor of that city. But these are 
specimens of the work he undertook to do. 
He had entered upon the duties of his 
office with a distinct declaration that he 
would administer it in a business way, and 
he showed that he had meant what he 
said, and that, so far as in him lay, he 
would redeem his promise. 

Lons: before half of his term had ex- 
pired he was recognized as something more 
than a mere Mayor of Buffalo — as other 
than an official figure in the third city of 
his State, and his name began to be dis- 
cussed as one to whom higher honors 
might come. But in all this he took no 
part. He simply went in and out about 
his work, thinking of nothing else ; trying 
only to see how he could best subserve 
the interests confided to him. There is 
universal agreement among all who came 
in contact with him then, and at other 
times, that he never used one office as a 
stepping-stone to another. He felt that it 
was all he could do to be Mayor of Buffalo 



68 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

SO lono; as the duties of that office were in- 
cumbent upon him. He did not aspire to 
be Governor, and thought much less seri* 
ously of it than did his friends, who, soon 
after the expiration of lialf his first year as 
Mayor, presented his name for that office. 

During his term as Mayor he first devel- 
oped those wonderful qualities of speech- 
making which have made him one of 
the most influential public speakers in 
his country. He did not make many 
speeches, and none of them were long. At 
the celebration of the Semi-Centennial of 
Buffalo he spoke with great acceptance, as 
he did also at the laying of the coruer 
stone of the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation. He was the presiding officer at a 
mass meeting to protest against the im- 
prisonment of Americans abroad. On 
each occasion he spoke briefly and clearly, 
preparing his addresses carefully, and de- 
livering , them with whatever force and 
power he could command. 

He thus gave evidence that he was not 
a mere cheese-parer, who expected to make 
a reputation by cutting off an insignificant 



' AS MA TOR OF B UFFALO. 6 9 

appropriation, but au official who, having 
a thoroiio'h knowledo^e of tlie business in 
hand, was determined that it should be 
conducted upon right principles. It is not 
to be wondered at, that, coming forward at 
such a time, a man like this should be 
thought of for higher honors. The people 
are accustomed to look for such men, and 
scan the political horizon with eager gaze 
for signs of their appearance. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE CANVASS FOR THE GOVERNORSHIP. 

For many years the people of Western 
New York had thought themselves slighted 
because neither of the great parties had 
nominated one of their citizens as a can- 
didate for Governor. So, in 1882, it was 
only natural for the local pride of the 
old Eighth Judicial District, and especially 
that of the city of Buffalo, to assert itself 
without much regard for parties, so far as 
the nomination was concerned, and to pre- 
sent for higher office the man who had so 



70 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND, 

distinguislied liimsel'f in tlie office of Mayor 
of Buffalo. It mattered little that his rise 
had been rapid, or that he had not been 
known as the holder of an office which 
brought him into close relation w^ith, and 
intimate knowledge of, the people of the 
State. Perhaps the lack of these things 
contributed something to the demand 
for his promotion. When an official has 
done so well as Grover Cleveland had in 
performing the duties of the office of 
Mayor of an important city, the people 
are apt to look upon him as a man who 
has not been carried into office by 
some tidal w^ave of party feeling, or 
as a protest against unworthy men, or 
the dominance of bad methods. It is com- 
mon, when reputations are made within a 
very brief time, to attribute a good deal of 
it to luck, but the people know better; 
they know it is not chance that makes a 
man an efficient administrator in an execu- 
tive office, and they reason from such a suc- 
cess that if this man, having good abilities 
and due and proper modesty, is promoted 
to an office still higher he will carry into 



THE CANVASS FOR THE GOVERNORSHIP. 11 

it the same characteristics tliat made him 
useful to his fellow-citizens in a smaller 
sphere. 

When, therefore, in 1882, the Democrats 
of the two great cities on the opposite 
sides of the East River presented each 
an active aspirant for the nomination for 
Governor, it w-as logical that the people of 
the western and central parts of the State, 
who had had their attention directea, to 
Mr. Cleveland's career, should present him 
for promotion at the hands of his party. 
This w^as done without any active partici- 
pation by himself. His friends, many of 
them members of the party w^hich he had 
always opposed, made up their minds to 
present his name for nomination by the 
Democratic Convention, which was to be 
held on September 22, at Syracuse. They 
formed their committees, made their allot- 
ment of work for themselves, easily carried 
the local caucuses and those in their im- 
mediate neigliborhood, and were ready to 
go down to Syracuse with a considerable 
number of delegates. 

When these local delegates started to 



'72 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

Syracuse a good many of tliem intimated 
that perhaps they would like to have their 
candidate, who was comparatively unknown 
to the great majority of the men who made 
up the membership of the convention, run 
down to the meeting place merely to show 
himself. He ridiculed the suggestion and 
had uo intention of complying ; but late in 
the evening of the day before the convention 
was to meet his friends telegraphed him 
with such urgency that he finally consented 
to go, almost without time for preparation. 
He reached Syracuse late in the evening, met 
the late Daniel Manning — the then dom- 
inant leader of the party in his State — for 
the first time, and thoroughly impressed 
upon the minds of the latter and his 
friends the fact that a new personality had 
appeared in the Democratic politics of the 
State. Then he returned to Buifalo and 
was at his desk in the Mayor's ofiice at the 
usual hour the next morning. 

In the convention the next day a fair 
j)roportion of the votes were cast for him on 
the first ballot. On the second ballot his 
support was largely augmented, and the 



THE CANVASS FOR THE GOVERNORSHIP. V3 

drift became so strong toward liim, while 
tlie antas^onism between the two candi- 
dates from the eastern part of the State 
was intensified, that he was nominated by 
a substantial majority on the third ballot. 

Then followed one of the most remark- 
able canvasses in the history of the State of 
New York or any other. The Republican 
candidate, nominated at the Republican 
Convention held a fortnio:ht earlier than 
that of its rival, was the late Charles J. 
Folger, who had been for many years a 
prominent man in his State, and was then 
the incumbent of the office of Secretary of 
the Treasury in the Cabinet of President 
Chester A. Arthur. He had been Chief 
Justice of the Court of Appeals, was a man 
of large attainments, great experience in 
political work, and the highest possible 
character. 

But these very virtues were turned 
against the worthy man who had become 
the beneficiary of bad methods in politics. 
Immediately the cry was raised that the 
Republican Convention which had nomi- 
nated this excellent candidate for Governor 



V4 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

had been controlled and dominated in every 
part by the National Administration, and 
that it had sought not only to dictate the 
head of the ticket in the State, but practic- 
ally to appoint the man who should become 
Governor. Immediately the independent 
elements everywhere took alarm ; one after 
another of the leading men of the Republi- 
can party in every portion of the State 
bolted the nomination thus made and allied 
themselves with the candidate nominated by 
the Democratic Convention. Some of the 
strongest Republican newspapers pursued 
the same policy, and exposed with unspar- 
ing severity the methods that had been 
used to secure the nomination of Judge Fol- 
ger, and commended with equal emphasis 
the independent man who had been nomi- 
nated in spite of the aspirations of the rep- 
resentatives of his party who had sought the 
honor. 

In a little more than a fortnight after 
the adjournment of the Syracuse con- 
vention, Mr. Cleveland's letter of accept- 
ance appeared. It was a short, concise, 
plain, well- written document, without a 



THE CANVASS FOR THE GOVERNORSHIP. 75 

trace of demagogy in it ; devoted en- 
tirely to State issues, each of wliicli he 
treated with sufficient fullness to make his 
views understood, and with the wonderful 
force and clearness which have now be- 
come so widely recognized. 

A single paragraph may bear quotation 
even after the lapse of many ^^ears, and in 
spite of the fact that the whole of it 
has been so often reprinted and is acces- 
sible in his published works. He said : 

"The importance of wise statesmanship 
in the management of public affairs cannot, 
I think, be overestimated. I am convinced, 
however, that the jjerplexities and the mys- 
tery often surrounding the administration 
of State concerns grow, in a great measure, 
out of an attempt to serve partisan ends 
rather than the welfare of the citizen. We 
may, I think, reduce to quite simple ele- 
ments the duty which public servants owe^ 
by constantly bearing in mind that the}^ 
are put in place to protect the rights of the 
people, to answer their needs as they arise, 
and to expend, for their benefit, the money 
drawn from them by taxation." 

From that time forward the canvass 
in favor of the election of Mr. Cleveland 
moved along with a force that was resist- 



V6 A LIFE OF OROVEB CLEVELAND. 

less. He made no speeclies ; lie did not 
even sliow himself in the older parts of the 
State, where he was almost entirely un- 
known. He went about his work in Buf- 
falo, giving some attention, however, then, 
as he always has done when a candidate 
for office, to the detail management of the 
canvass. Little of a politician, in the 
usual sense of that term, he has, after all, 
had more facilities for obtaining correct 
information as to the condition of public 
opinion than any dozen ordinary poli- 
ticians or managers combined. These he 
has always used legitimately with much 
effect. When the election was held and 
the votes counted, it was found that 
Grover Cleveland had 192,854 votes 
more than had been cast for Charles J 
Folger. 

ISTothino^ like this had ever been known 
in American politics. Here was a man, 
who to the ordinary politician was an 
obscure man, one who had never held an 
office outside of a small part of the great 
State which he had been called on to 
govern by the most decisive majority cast 



THE CANVASS FOR THE 00VERN0R8HIP. 11 

in a disputed election in any State of the 
Union. 

In this day of triumph, when his par- 
tisans everywhere were indulging them- 
selves in demonstrations of enthusiasm the 
man who was the subject of it felt perhaps 
a stronger sense of responsibility than any 
man ever chosen to such an office in any 
State. But there w^as no vanity, no exul- 
tation, no assertion, even in his most con- 
fidential relations with his friends, of any 
feeling but the sense of responsibility that 
rested upon him and the expression of a 
fear that he might not be able to cany it 
out to his own satisfaction. On the night 
of election day he wrote the following 
letter to his brother : 

" Mayor's Office, 
'' Buffalo, N. Y., November 7, 1882. 
My Dear Brother : 

"I have just voted. I sit here in the 
Mayor's office alone, with the exception of 
an artist from Frank Leslie' s Neiosparper, 
who is sketching the office. If mother was 
here I should be writing to her, and I feel 
as if it were time for me to write to some- 
one who will believe what I write. 

*' I have been for some time in the atmos- 



78 4 LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

pliere of certain success, so that I have been 
sure that I should assume the duties of the 
high office for which I have been named. I 
have tried hard, in the light of this fact, to 
appreciate properly the responsibilities that 
will rest upon me, and they are much, too 
much underestimated. But the thought 
that has troubled me is, can I well perform 
my duties, and in such a manner as to do 
some good to the people of the State ? I 
know there is room for it, and I know that 
I am honest and sincere in my desire to do 
well ; but the question is whether I know 
enough to accomplish what I desire. 

"The social life which seems to await me 
has also been a subject of much anxious 
thought. I have a notion that I can regu- 
late that very much as I desire ; and, if I 
can, I shall 'spend very little time in the 
T)urely ornamental part of the office. In 
point of fact, I will tell you, first of all 
others, the policy I intend to adopt, and 
that is, to make the matter a business en- 
gagement between the people of, the State 
and myself, in which the obligation on my 
side is to perform the duties assigned me 
with an eye single to the interest of my em- 
ployers. I shall have no idea of re-election 
or any higher jwlitical preferment in my 
head, but be very thankful and happy if I 
can well serve one term as the people's Gov- 
ernor. Do you know that if mother were 
alive I should feel so much safer. I have 
always thought that her prayers had much 
to do with my success. I shall expect you 



THE CANVASS FOR THE GOVERNORSHIP. 79 

all to help me in that way. Give my love 

to and to if she is with you, and 

believe me, 

"Your affectionate brother, 

" Grover Cleveland." 
"Rev. William N. Cleveland." 

Then, as if emphasizing this feeling of 
awe, this innate diffidence, he began to 
prepare himself for the new duties that 
awaited him. He had very little time to 
make that study of the condition of the 
State which it was necessary for liim to 
deal with in the annual message, which 
must be sent to the legislature only 
a few weeks later. He went about his 
usual duties, accepted few of the invita- 
tions that came to hini, and in the interval 
made only a single speech — at a recep- 
tion given him by the Manhattan Club in 
December after his election. It is re- 
markable now, looking back upon that 
speech, the first made after his broader 
career had dawned upon him, that it was 
pervaded by the same lofty sentiments, 
emphasized in the strongest way the sense 
of responsibility he felt, and expressed 
many of the ideas that he has since been 



80 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

able to cany out as an executive officer 
and as the friend and mentor of the Amer- 
ican people. 

He went to Albany one day before the 
time fixed by law for his inauguration, 
accompanied only by his friend and law 
partner, Mr. Wilson S. Bissell, and was 
inaugurated the next day with the simple 
ceremony so long a distinctive feature in 
the political life of the State of New York. 
When the legislature convened the next 
day, he sent to it his annual message, and 
was thus fully embarked upon the new 
and broader career. 

CHAPTER V. 

FIRST YEAR IN THE GOVERNORSHIP. 

The people of the great State of New 
York did not have Ions: to wait to find out 
that they had placed the government in 
the hands of one in no way unworthy to 
succeed to its power and honors. That 
office has long been deemed the fitting re- 
ward for men of great ability and high 
personal character. In very few cases has 



FIRST YEAR IN THE GOVERNORSHIP. 81 

it been filled by men of low political am- 
bitions or of bad character, or by those 
who would use it merely for the sake of 
the power or the spoils inherent in it. 
In many respects it has been considered 
but little less dignified to be Governor of 
the State of Ne^v York than to be Presi- 
dent of the United States. The names of 
the men who have been elevated to that 
lofty place are, in and of themselves, proof 
of the truth of this assertion. George 
Clinton, De Witt Clinton, Silas AVright, 
William L. Marcy, W^illiam H. Seward, 
Horatio Seymour, John A. Dix, and 
Samuel J. Tilden were fitted to adorn any 
public office, whatever its dignity, or how- 
ever grave its responsibilities. 

But though the people of the State knew 
it not, they had conferred their great office 
upon a man who was to bring to it greater 
renown than any of his predecessors. That 
he was comparatively unknown in person 
and character to the great majority of the 
people who had elected him only increased 
the interest and made his success the more 
conspicuous. It has always been some- 



82 A LIFE OF QROVER CLE VF LAM). 

thing of a surprise that a man who, to all 
outward appearances, had only the slightest 
experience in the larger politics of his 
State should have been chosen from all 
his fellow-citizens to administer this great 
trust. And his election by such a remark- 
able majority, the revulsion of feeling that 
had produced this result, the moral force 
and ideas behind it, had given him a 
position which none but a man of great 
ability and of the very highest traits of 
character could have filled. It was not 
enough that he was known to be an honest 
man whose actions in an office of this 
magnitude could hardly be predicted. 

It was, in many respects, a risk for 
a people to take, in spite of the fact 
that there are few instances indeed in 
Avhich men w^ill permit themselves to be 
elected to such a place without the ability 
and character to till it. As a rule men 
know themselves better than anybody else 
knows them, and they are seldom given to 
inviting inevitable defeat and failure. But 
he was left fi:ee-handed and independent. 
He had not been identified long enough in 



FIRST YEAR IN THE OOVERNORSHIP. 83 

a prominent way with the management of 
his party to take sides, or to have allied 
himself with factions in it. He had in- 
curred few obligations to individuals, local- 
ities, or interests. Then, too, he had 
been so trained in the exactino; duties 
of his profession, and in the few public 
trusts that had been confided to him, to 
consider everything presented to him on 
its merits, that he could examine fairly 
every public question as it arose and decide 
it as seemed best to his judgment and con- 
science. 

His first annual message, prepared, as 
must always be the case in ]S"e^v York, 
under many difficulties and without an 
opportunity to get himself into the atmos- 
phere of State politics and interests, was 
comparatively brief, limited to as small a 
number of subjects as was consistent with 
reasonable completeness, and set forth the 
views of a practical man who looked upon 
public affairs in the same light that he 
did upon the private business of an indi- 
vidual — as something to be done con- 
scientiously and intelligently. 



84 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

lu this message lie discussed with iutelli- 
gence the interests of the canals and empha- 
sized their importance. At the session of 
the legislature held just before his elec- 
tion the State had finally completed the 
legislation necessary to make them free. 
He insisted that as the people had surren- 
dered the protection thus afforded, to- 
gether with the revenue derived from the 
tolls, their chosen representatives should, 
in the execution of the trust committed to 
them, oppose the expenditure of large sums 
of money until the effect of this policy 
had been seen. As the result of his recom- 
mendations some legislation very much in 
advance of that usually passed in such 
emergencies was secured. 

He had excellent recommendations to 
make on the principles that should 
rule the conduct of the public schools, 
the management of banks and insurance 
companies, the relations that the National 
Guard should bear to the State, and the 
management of prisons and charitable in- 
stitutions. It was perhaps no more than 
natural that he should give much attention 



FIB8T TEAR IN THE GOVERNORSHIP, 85 

to tlie latter. His early experience in 
New York, althongh it had come to liim 
when little more than a boy, had evidently 
impressed him deeply. So he insisted 
that if abuses existed in the care of the 
insane no opportunity should be given for 
their continuance without the most relent- 
less exposure. He averred that ^'frequent 
visitations and the most thorough exami- 
nation should be made by local boards 
of properly constituted State authorities, 
which the people would be sure were in 
no wise bound except to the faithful dis- 
charge of their duties." He felt that by 
such means the institutions and those in 
charge of them would be protected from 
unjust charges and suspicion, and that the 
confidence of the people of the State 
would be secured. 

He gave much attention to the question 
of immigration, as it was then conducted 
by the commissioners appointed by the 
State and under the laws passed by con- 
gress. For many years the Quarantine 
and Health Departments had been in bad 
odor. He insisted that the abuses incident 



86 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

to tliem should be corrected. It was in- 
evitable tliat tlie man who had just come 
from the successful administration of a 
municipal office should give some attention 
to the problems incident to the duties he 
had Just laid down. His remedy for the 
evils of muncipal government was simple. 
He said : 

'^They [city governments] should be so 
organized as to be simple in details and to 
cast upon the iDeople affected thereby the 
full responsibility of their administration. 
The different departments should be in such 
accord as in their operation to lead toward 
tlie same results. Divided councils and 
divided responsibility to the people on the 
part of municipal officers, it is believed, give 
rise to much that is objectionable in the life 
of cities. If, to remedy this evil, the Chief 
Executive should be made answerable to the 
]3eople for the proper conduct of the city 
affairs, it is quite clear that his power in the 
selection of those who manage its different 
departments should be greatly enlarged." 

Scarcely less important was his decla- 
ration in favor of the enactment of an 
efficient State civil service law, and to 
this recommendation is due the fact that 
he was able to declare in his next message 



FIRST YEAH IN THE GOVERNORSHIP. SY 

that " NewjYork, then, leads in the inaugu- 
ration of a comprehensive State system of 
civil service." His first official declaration 
in favor of the adoption of this policy was 
brief, covering only a few lines in his 
annual message, but it was thoroughly in 
harmony with the sentiment of the State, 
and was so enforced from time to time by 
his own example that, while the legislature 
failed to enact many a good law that he 
had recommended, and public sentiment 
really favored, it dared not refuse this 
demand. 

In his message there was less of the dog- 
matism that characterized his Buffalo ca- 
reer than was to be expected ; but when it 
is borne in mind that he had assumed great 
responsibilities in an office to which he was 
entirely new, and was surrounded by condi- 
tions with which he had had little opportu- 
nity to familiarize himself, this is not at all 
surprising. It was not long, however, before 
he began to feel thoroughly at home, and 
it is interesting to the student of political 
conditions, as well as of individual char- 
acter, to go back over the public papers of 



88 A LIFE OF O ROVER CLEVELAND. 

Mr. Clevelancrs first year as Governor and 
observe \iow quickly he projected himself 
into the atmosphere of State politics. 

He had been known as " The Veto 
Mayor of Buffalo." It was not long until 
he was as Justly entitled to the name of 
"The Veto Governor of New York." 
Although there was a change of scene, 
there was none in the principles upon 
which he carried on the business of the 
government. He still looked upon a 
public office as a place in which he must 
serve the interests of the people. He pro- 
ceeded in Albany, with the same delibera- 
tion he had used in Buffalo, to interpose 
the veto power for the protection of the 
public treasury. In Buffalo he had vetoed 
a bill to transfer money from a Fourth of 
July fund to a Memorial Day fund, and, as 
has been seen, expressed his reluctance to 
do so because of his sympathy with the 
object ; so in Albany he vetoed a bill 
authorizing the supervisors of Chautauqua 
County to appropriate money for a soldiers 
monument, and in doino^ so declared : " It 
is not an agreeable duty to refuse to give 



FIRST YEAR IN THE GOVEUNOBSHIP. 89 

sanction to the appropriation of money for 
sucli a worthy and patriotic object, bnt I can- 
not forget that the money proposed to be ap- 
propriated is public money to be raised by 
taxation, and that all that justifies its exac- 
tion from the people is the necessity of its 
use for purposes connected with the safety 
and substantial welfare of the taxpayers." 
And, in closing the same message, he in- 
dulged in that legislative lecturing that had 
made him famous in Buffalo. In doing so 
he expressed the hope that " a due regard to 
fundamental principles, and a strict adher- 
ence to the letter and spirit of the Constitu- 
tion, will prevent the passage of bills of this 
nature in the future." 

He vetoed the bill enacted by his own 
partisans in the legislature to amend the 
charter of the city of Elmira, and only a 
little later he did the same thino; with the 
bill to amend the charter of his own city 
of Baifalo. He had been succeeded by a 
new Mayor, who was not unwilling to have 
something of partisan glory and spoils. 
So a bill was introduced, and passed in the 
legislature, reorganizing the Fire Depart- 



90 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

ment. In an elaborate message, vetoing 
this bill, be expressed bis dissent from tbe 
principles of tbe bill for legal as well as 
moral reasons, and in closing tbis docu- 
ment be wrote a paragraph wbicb bas con- 
tributed largely to bis fame, and wbicb 
was in every way characteristic of tbe man. 
In this be said : 

'' I believe in an open and sturdy partisan- 
ship, wbicb secures the legitimate advan- 
tages of party supremacy ; but parties were 
made for the people, and I am unwilling, 
knowingly, to give my assent to measures 
purely partisan, which will sacrifice or en- 
danger their interests." 

During tbis session of tbe legislature be 
also laid down the principle, emphasized so 
many times during his term as President, 
that persons should not be relieved from 
responsibility for the safe keeping of money 
or property for any light or insufficient 
reason. His opinions on tbis matter were 
expressed in a bill authorizing the Comp- 
troller to compromise claims against a bank 
in his own city. In many other vetoes he 
carried out in a larger held the policies that 
bad given him prominence and bad made 



FIRST YEAR IN THE GOVERNORSHIP. 91 

him such an efficient servant of the 
people. 

He exercised the power granted him by 
the Constitution to remove an elective 
officer, taking up the charges preferred 
against a District Attorney belonging to his 
own party, and ousting the incumbent from 
an office, in spite of the fact that he was an 
important political factor in his community. 
In doing all these things he encountered 
the usual amount of partisan abuse. He 
had a difficult leo^islature to manaoje. His 
own party in the senate was rent by fac- 
tions, and a series of disgraceful ti*ades had 
been made from time to time between one 
or the other of these and the Republicans 
in the same body ; but he went his way, 
paying little attention to these things, and 
apparently gathering courage and ideas for 
carrying out the same policy in other direc- 
tions. 

Every criticism was mild compared 
with the opposition evoked by his action 
in vetoing what was known as the " Five- 
Cent Fare Bill." This ^vas a bill forcibly 
reducing to five cents the fares charged 



92 A LIFE OF OROVEB CLEVELAND. 

on the elevated railroads of tlie city of 
New York. The question had been agi- 
tated for a good many years, and a strong 
feeling of opposition to the elevated rail- 
roads themselves, and to what were 
deemed their exactions, had been devel- 
oped. That some new and reasonable re- 
strictions might have been justified can 
scarcely be doubted, but the legislature 
undertook to embody these in the most 
radical and destructive form. The Gov- 
ernor saw that while there were some 
abuses in the management of the roads, the 
action of the legislature would produce 
still greater injustice to the corporation 
affected, but more to the public interests. 
He gave long and patient hearings to the 
advocates of the law and to its opponents, 
and, finally making up his own mind, wrote 
a strong and comprehensive veto of the' bill. 
This Avas almost purely a legal document. 
He reviewed the history of the legislation 
that had resulted in the building of these 
roads, and finally in their consolidation into 
a single system, and also reviewed with 
care the demand made by the people of 



FIRST YEAR IN THE GOVERNORSHIP. 93 

New York for so many years for increased 
rapid transit facilities. He never did a 
piece of work of this kind that demanded 
more time and labor, more conscientious 
consideration, than did the veto in ques- 
tion. On the one hand were the selfish 
interests of a great and, in some respects, a 
grasping corporation ; on the other were 
what seemed to be almost the united de- 
mands of all the different elements that 
went to make up a great city — demands 
supposed to be especi.illy strong among 
the laboring element. Delegations from 
the trade organizations representing them 
appeared before the Governor in support 
of the measure; petitions of interminable 
length were presented to him, and able 
lawyers made arguments on both sides, 
which were quite enough, even of them- 
selves, to try the patience of a man less 
anxious to get at the truth. After all 
this had been done, he made up his mind 
for himself and, as already thus narrated, 
vetoed the bill. In doino; so, he laid down 
the principles upon which he had pro- 
ceeded ; 



94 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

"But we have especially in our keeping 
the honor and good faith of a great State, 
and we should see to it that no suspicion at- 
taches, through any act of ours, to the fair 
fame of the Commonwealth. The State 
should not only be strictly just, but scrupu- 
lously fair, and in all its relations to the 
citizen every legal and moral obligation 
should be recognized. This can only be 
done by legislating without vindictiveness 
or prejudice, and with a firm determina- 
tion to deal justly and fairly with those 
from whom we exact obedience." 

As illustrating his courage, in such a cri- 
sis, an anecdote is related by his friends to 
the effect that on the night of the day 
he sent this veto messao^e to the Assem- 
bly while making himself ready for bed, 
he thought it over and said to himself: 
"Well, to-morrow I shall be the most 
unpopular man in the State of New York." 
But he was mistaken. The next morn- 
ing, when he got up, he found upon his 
table, as usual, the papers from New York 
City and Albany, and discovered that 
the conscientious regard he had shown 
for public honor, the care ^vith which he 
had examined the matter in all its bear- 
ings, had made an impression upon the 



FIRST YEAR IN THE OOVERNORSHIP. D3 

public mind, and that the same conclusion 
had been reached by the newspapers which 
represented this sentiment that he himself 
had been compelled to find. The same 
thing, too, was true in the assembly itself, 
as the attempt to pass the bill over his 
veto failed disastrously. 

Thus he went on dealing with the legis- 
lature in much the same spirit he had 
shown in the case of the Common Council 
of Buffalo, only with the change in lan- 
guage and manner that circumstances 
made necessar}^ 

Another question to which he gave much 
attention dui'ing his first year as Governor 
was that of pardons and commutations. 
Naturally a man of kind heart, and never 
afraid of any work that might be imposed 
upon him in doing the duties of his office, 
he was soon overwhelmed with applica- 
tions for the pardon of criminals and com- 
mutations of sentences. To each of these 
he gave the most careful attention, granting 
hearings and beginning then the custom of 
reviewing, when necessary, the entire I'ecord 
of the cases to ^vhich his attention had been 



^0 A LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 

called. Because of this lie was subjected 
to a great deal of bitter criticism. His 
predecessor had made it a point to grant 
but few pardons, and had in fact been 
rather curt in his refusal to consider cases. 
About six months after Mr. Cleveland's 
inauguration he expressed his views, in a 
newspaper interview, in answer to the 
criticisms that had been made upon him. 
He said : 

"The pardoning power is one of the most 
difficult and perplexing duties that a Gover- 
nor has to perform. It is one of the duties 
imposed upon him by the Constitution. No 
person can properly appreciate the embar- 
rassments attending it without going through 
an examination of the facts presented in con- 
nection with the different cases. There are 
instances where injustice has been done ; 
where men have been convicted on evidence 
insufficient or evidence that subsequently 
turned out to be false, and wliere men have 
been sentenced to longer terms than the 
character of the crimes justified. 

" Occasionally^ there is an epidemic of a 
particular chiss of crime in a section of the 
State; the public becomes excited, and it 
sometimes occurs that a mnn is convicted on 
insufficient evidence and at a time wlien pub- 
lic sentiment is high ; he receives a long 
sentence and, perhaps, all contrary to the 



FIRST YEAR IN THE GOVERNCRSHIP, 97 

facts. After a lapse of timersw facts are 
brought to light, throwing doubt on the 
guilt of the i^arty. The prosecuting officer 
who secured the conviction, and the judge 
who sentenced the party, appeal for the ex- 
ercise of executive clemency ; setting forth 
the facts, and strongly recommending that 
the ends of justice have already been served 
by the punishment inflicted. 

"I have one case before me now where 
the prosecuting attorney on the trial now 
sets forth that he withheld certain evidence 
which would have shown that the person ar- 
raigned was not guilty of murder, but only 
of robbery, and only by withholding the evi- 
dence was he convicted. In reality, the man 
claimed to have been murdered died of con- 
sumption three weeks after the robbery. 
The party had been imprisoned for twenty 
years, and now the prosecuting attorney 
and the judge have made an apj^eal on his 
behalf for executive clemency. These are 
only a few examples. The question whether 
a Governor is issuing too few or too many 
pardons can only be properly answered after 
considering all the evidence." 

Such an out-of-the-way declaration — 
something overlaid by matters more im- 
portant — is cited merely to show how this 
man's character developed and how he 
tried at every turn to do his duty, regard- 
less of misunderstanding or obloquy. He 



98 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

has always ^mauifested a willingness to 
bide liis time in all important matters, and 
to do justice wlien liis heart and head in 
concert urged him to take such a course. 

During his first year as Governor he 
made a few public speeches. He returned 
to "his own home and addressed the annual 
Saengerf est in session there. He spoke to 
the graduates of the Albany High School 
in June, and in October made an excellent 
speech at the fair in Ogdensburg. In 
none of these was there anything to shoAv 
that he had in view any higher honors; 
in fact, at no time during his career has he 
seemed while in one office to be looking 
for promotion to another and higher one. 
He has merely done his duty in each, and 
whether in speech or act has a23parently 
been satisfied to let the future take care 
of itself. 

During the time under consideration it 
fell to the lot of the Governor to make 
many appointments to fill vacancies in 
public offices, and in doing this he applied 
the same tests of fitness and character that 
had distinguished him in Buffalo and upon 



FIB8T YEAR IN THE OOVERNORSUIP. 99 

which he insisted when he recommended 
the adoption of a State civil service law. 
This does not mean that either then or 
since he paid no attention to the demands 
of his party. He has always recognized 
that it is not possible to separate impor- 
tant and responsible places from account- 
ability to the sentiment dominant among 
the people of a neighborhood, or a State, 
or the nation. But this sentiment with 
him was always accompanied by the most 
exacting demands as to the fitness and 
character of the applicant. 

He carried his own principles into prac- 
tice by promoting many men who had 
served the State in minor places. Thus, 
when he had to appoint a Superintendent 
of the Insurance Department, he promoted 
to be the head of it the man who had en- 
tered the office as a messenger. When he 
had to choose a Commissioner of the new 
Capitol Building he appointed a business 
man of whose character and fitness he was 
personally cognizant. The Superintend- 
ency of the Public Works, an office which 
for many years before and for some years 



100 A LIFE OF GROVEB CLEVELAND. 

since Mr. Cleveland's time has been looked 
upon as one belonging almost entirely to 
spoilsmen, was conferred upon a man 
whose experience in the management of 
the canals and whose place of residence 
made him thoroughly useful in his new 
capacity. 

He had the appointment of the original 
Railroad Commission of his State, the law 
authorizing it having been enacted during 
the jDeriod under discussion. He gave the 
most careful attention to the selection of 
the members of this body, and it was done 
with such judgment that his choice gave 
general satisfaction, regardless of party 
affiliations. It was very important in the 
early days of such a body that it should be 
composed of men of a high type of char- 
acter, with a conscientious regard for the 
public interest. These qualities he was 
able to command, and it is perhaps safe 
to say that the first commission — that ap- 
pointed by Mr. Cleveland when he was 
Governor — had the best and ablest men 
that has ever composed that body since 
its authorization by the legislature. As a 



FIRST FEAR IN THE GOVERNORSHIP. 101 

natural result its work was started on sensi- 
ble lines, and it has thoroughly justified it- 
self by an entire absence of the irritation 
and ill-feeling so common between the 
people and the railroads in many parts of 
the Union. 

For many years the labor question had 
been looked upon as a very important one. 
Political conventions, legislators, and execu- 
tive officers had given much attention to it. 
The two great cities of the State were and 
are so large as almost to dominate its politi- 
cal sentiment, and in these cities what is 
known as the labor element certainly holds 
the balance of power between the two 
parties. The manufacturing interest, once 
unimportant compared with the commercial 
element, had grown with great rapidity, 
until in 1880 New York had attained the 
first position as a manufacturing city. 
There had been introduced into what has 
long been known as the metropolitan dis- 
trict a population which in origin, ideas, 
and interests could scarcely be matched any- 
where else. It was a thoroughly eclectic 
population, keen, intelligent, aspiring, and 



102 A LIFE OF OROVER ULEVELAND. 

witli no more, perhaps, than its fair share of 
human selfishness. Its growth had been so 
rapid that it had not assimilated itself thor- 
oughly to the new political conditions, nor 
had party leaders been able to learn clearly 
how to deal with it. Therefore, many im- 
practicable measures had been brought for- 
ward by the accepted representatives of 
the labor element, together with many 
others which, though honestly meant, 
were distinguished for inefficiency, and, if 
enacted into laws, would have utterly 
failed to bring about the desired result. 
Previous Governors had even permitted 
some of these crude measures to become 
laws ; in many cases, no doubt, with the 
idea that if they proved failures they could 
be repealed, but in most instances they 
surrendered what were their honest 
opinions in order to appease what were 
supposed to be the demands of this new 
and unknown element in the population 
by which they were surrounded. 

By the time that Mr. Cleveland was 
nominated for Governor it had become an 
accepted thing to have a labor plank and. 



FIRST YEAR IN THE GOVERNORSHIP. 103 

in referring to this utterance in the plat- 
form Mr. Cleveland accepted it by saying : 

" The laboring classes constitute the main 
part of our population. They should be 
protected in their efforts to peacefully assert 
their riglits when endangered by aggregated 
capital, and all statutes on this subject 
should recognize the care of the State for 
honest toil and be framed with a view of im- 
proving the condition of the workingman." 

The first legislature with which Mr. 
Cleveland had to deal undertook to carry 
out the promises of the platform and the 
candidate as far as possible. In pursuance 
of this policy a bureau of labor statistics 
was provided for. The bill prohibiting 
the manufacture of woolen hats in State 
prisons, penitentiaries, and i-eformatories, 
and that prohibiting the manufacture of 
cigars in tenement houses, together with 
the Convict Labor bill, were passed and 
approved by the Governor. 

He refused, however, to surrender his 
judgment to popular clamor when con- 
vinced that a proposed law, affecting the 
interests of many men, was not consti- 
tutional or in accord with the principles 



104 A LIFE OF Q ROVER CLEVELAND. 

of practical politics. Thus lie refused to 
sign the bill, wliich was passed late in the 
session, prohibiting the working of more 
than twelve hours a day by drivers and 
conductors on street railways. He dis- 
tinctly approved the object of the law, 
but vetoed it on legal and constitutional 
grounds. It was clear then, as some of the 
leaders of the laboring people afterward 
admitted, that the law could never have 
been enforced, and, as it applied to a 
single class, it would have been dangerous 
as well as impracticable legislation. 

Thus the first year as Governor, which 
has already been passed hurriedly in re- 
view, was closed with much credit to the 
Governor. He had worked with con- 
science and industry to carry out not only 
the promises made by his party and him- 
self, but to enact into practical legislation 
the principles he approved. Each month 
his honesty and faithfulness had become 
more widely known in his own State as well 
as in every other. In general his relations 
with his party were fairly good. He had 
refused to do many things that the politi- 



SECOND TEAR IN THE GOVERNORSHIP. 105 

cal managers wanted, but he had behind 
him then, as before and since, the senti- 
ment of the people. He had no need to 
turn either to the right or to the left, so 
far as higher honors were concerned, and 
although a Presidential election was ap- 
proaching he gave no encouragement to 
efforts to push his claims upon his party 
in the country at large. 

CHAPTER VI. 

SECOND YEAR IN THE GOVERNORSHIP. 

Mr. Cleveland began his second year 
as Governor by sending to the legislature 
his annual message, on January 1, 1884. 
If there appeared to be something like 
hesitation the year before, it was no longer 
to be found. He showed that if he had 
ever lacked confidence in himself he had 
now gained it, and he evidently felt sure 
of his ability to carry out his own promises 
in spite of limitations, and to conduct the 
affairs of his office about as he thought 
they should be conducted. Pie knew 
thoroughly what laws the best interests of 



106 A LIFE OF QROVER CLBVELAND. 

Ms State demanded, and he showed this 
feeling by recommending them with some- 
thing of the dogmatism that had dis- 
tinguished his earlier efforts in Buffalo. 

In the opening sentences of this message 
he emphasized the sentiment which so 
many times before and since he has re- 
ferred to. That was, the responsibility of 
officials to the people. On this he said : 

" I believe it to be entirely proper at the 
outset to dii'ect attention to the fact of the 
growth and progress of llie State in every 
direction. The needs of the people call for 
patient and intelligent action on the part 
of their representatives in the legislature. 
Everyone who has assumed any share of re- 
sponsibility in this branch of the govern- 
ment should enter upon the discharge of his 
duties fully appreciating his trust and with 
an unwavering determination to serve the 
State faithfully." 

He gave special attention to the perni- 
cious influences of leo'islation which were 
the natural result of the introduction and 
consideration of bills purely local in their 
character. He looked upon these as aifect- 
ing merely special interests, that ought 
not under any pretext to be permitted to 



SECOND YEAH IN THE OOVERNOESUIP. 107 

find adoption by tlie legislature represent- 
ing all the people of the State. He 
pointed out that the powers of the Board 
of Supervisors and other local authori- 
ties had been enlarged for the express 
purpose of enabling them to deal intelli- 
gently and properly with such subjects, 
but he complained that, notwithstanding 
this, " bills are introduced authorizing the 
building and repairing of bridges and high- 
ways, the erection of engine-houses and 
soldiers' monuments, the establishment of 
libraries, the regulation and purchase of 
cemeteries, and other things of a like 
nature." He even insisted that there Avas 
reason to suspect in many cases that such 
measures were made the means of develop- 
ing the system which has long been 
known by the term of legislative log-roll- 
ing; so he lectured the legislature ^vith 
his old-time force, and even anticipated 
in a degree some of those plain-speaking 
messao;es wdiich used to astonish a do-noth- 
ing congress and attract the attention of a 
grateful people. 

He dealt with the subject of taxation 



108 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

mucli more fully than tlie previous year, 
and insisted that "strict economy in the 
management of State affairs by their agents 
should furnish the people a good govern- 
ment at the least possible cost. This is 
common honesty. But, to see to it that 
this cost is fairly and justly distributed, and 
the burden equally borne by those w^ho have 
no peaceful redress if the State is unjust, 
is the best attribute of sovereignty and the 
highest duty to the citizen." He insisted 
that " the recognition of this duty charac- 
terizes a beneficent government, but its 
repudiation marks the oppression of tyran- 
nical power." This was the same prin- 
ciple that he had avowed in Buffalo, and 
the tariff-reform message of 1887, with its 
scarcely less emphatic predecessor of 1886, 
is no more positive. 

He reviewed in detail and Avith be- 
coming pride the management of the dif- 
ferent departments of the State. Public 
education, banks, insurance, the National 
Guard, prisons, and the charitable institu- 
tions were all so treated in this second mes- 
sao-e that the lemslature had an excellent 



SECOND YEAR IN THE GOVERNORSHIP. 109 

opportunity, if it cliose, to get a good deal 
of mucli-iieeded information. Indeed, lie 
gave far more attention to the charitable 
institutions than any of his predecessors. 

The first report of the Railroad Com- 
mission, authorized at the preceding ses- 
sion of the legislature and. appointed by 
him, gave him an opportunity to review at 
considerable length the relations of cor- 
porations to the people, and no more 
scathing review of the abuses of corpora- 
tions has been made than is to be found 
in this legislative document. He de- 
manded that the State should "refuse to 
allow these corporations to exist under its 
authority and patronage, or, acknowledg- 
ing their patei-nity and its responsibility, 
should provide a simple, easy way for its 
people whose money is invested, and the 
public generally, to discover how the 
funds of these institutions are spent and 
how their affairs are conducted." 

The new State civil-service reform law 
had gone into operation, and its beginnings 
were reviewed with an appreciation that 
showed intelligence as well as devotion to 



110 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND 

the idea underlying tliis reform. It was, 
therefore, only natural tliat in closing his 
review of the business pf the State he 
should recapitulate the work that had been 
done during the first year of his adminis- 
tration. Among others he cited the es- 
tablishment of the civil-service reform 
principle ; the prohibition of political as- 
sessments of employees of the public 
departments ; the protection by law of all 
citizens at primary elections ; the establish- 
ment of a labor bureau to collect infor- 
mation and statistics; the enactment of 
legislation providing for saving the forests 
of the State; the* revision of the tax laws 
in such a way that the evasion of liability 
was rendered more difficult ; the placing 
of co-operative insurance companies under 
the control of the Superintendent of the 
Insurance Department ; the reduction and 
regulation of the fees of receivers; the 
introduction of business principles into 
the construction of public buildings ; the 
establishment of a Court of Claims in 
which the rights of citizens might be 
asserted even against the State itself. 



SECOND YEAR IN THE GOVERNORSHIP. Ill 

T-i8se were cited as accomplisliments 
important ellougli to show tkat the sub- 
stantial interests of the State had not been 
neglected or overlooked. 

For the first time he made a reference in 
a public document to national politics, in 
which he cited, with much appositeness, 
an extract from De Tocqueville's " Democ- 
racy in America," and showed by contrast 
how great had been the decline of our 
shipping interests. He hoped that the 
people might be permitted to " ^' anticipate 
a time when care for the people's needs as 
they actually arise, and the application of 
remedies as wrongs appfear, shall lead in 
tho conduct of national affairs." He per- 
haps little suspected even then, only a few 
months before his nomination for Presi- 
dent, the meaning these words were to 
be given within the next few years. 

The presence in an important position in 
the politics of a great State of a man who 
had begun his career as a municipal re- 
former was certain to attract his attention 
to questions connected with the govern- 
ment of cities. In this second annual mes- 



112 A LIFE OF O ROVER CLEVELAND. 

sage lie set forth liis opinions on tlie 
question witli fullness. Many bills w^ere 
introduced, some of tliem ynpracticable 
and useless, otbei's wantonly unjust ; but 
among them were important measures. 
Of these probably the one that had the 
most far-reachincy eifect was that takino* 
away from the Board of Aldermen of the 
city of New York its power to confirm ap- 
pointments made by the Mayor. There 
were many features in the bill as proposed 
and passed that did not commend them- 
selves to the Governor, but he signed it 
without much hesitation, and took oc- 
casion to set forth his views at length in 
a memorandum filed with it. 

In like manner measures instituting re- 
forms in the county offices in New York 
City were all signed by the Governor, after 
he had insisted that they should be made 
as perfect as possible. In one or two cases 
in which he recommended the adoption of 
this policy the legislature refused to recall 
the bills, in the hope that, as he seemed to 
favor the principle back of them, he might 
sign them, without regard to the form in 



SECOND YEAR IN THE GOVERNORSHIP. 113 

whicli they were presented to him. But 
lie refused to do so, and in vetoing one 
lie used an expression, almost savage in 
denunciation, in which he said : " Of all 
the defective and shabby legislation which 
has been presented to me, this is the worst 
and most inexcusable," pointing out in de- 
tail the blunders and inconsistencies he had 
discovered. 

At the election in November, 1883, dur- 
ing his first year as Governor, the people 
of the State had voted by a large majority 
in favor of the abolition of contract labor. 
The legislature did not deal with the ques- 
tion in a direct way, but established a com- 
mission to investigate and report at a late 
day in the session. At the same time it 
passed a bill prohibiting such labor in the 
State prisons, after the contracts then in 
force had expired. The Governor vetoed 
this bill, as it did not apply to the prohibi- 
tion of contract labor in the penitentiaries, 
and seemed intended by the legislature to 
evade the doing of the full duty imposed 
upon it by the vote of the people. The 
bill was amended in accordance with 



114 A LIFE OF QROVER CLEVELAND. 

the Governor's objections and at once 
signed by liim, since which time contract 
labor in prisons and penitentiaries has been 
prohibited. He insisted, however, that the 
State should keep faith with the prison 
contractors as well as with everybody else, 
and the failure to do this resulted in some 
vigorous veto measures and memorandums. 
During this session the act providing for 
the appointment of a commission to set 
aside the land necessary for a park at Niag- 
ara Falls was passed, and, as the Dominion 
of Canada soon adopted the same policy, 
many of the abuses that had grown up in 
the neighborhood of Niagara Falls were 
corrected and many perils that threatened 
their beauty were averted. In this way 
there was created a State reservation, 
under the management of which unsightly 
constructions have been removed and 
the scenery surrounding the Falls has 
been restored, so far as practicable, to 
what it was originally. An eifort had 
been made to do this for several years be- 
fore Mr. Cleveland's accession to the Gov- 
ernorship, but his predecessor had indicated 



SECOND YEAR IN THE GOVERNORSHIP. 115 

liis opposition and the bill had not been 
passed. Bat Mr. Cleveland showed a 
disposition friendly to the undertaking, 
due pei'haps to his familiarity with the 
country about the Falls and his knowledge 
of the abuses that had grown up there. 
The law has been carried into effect with 
much satisfaction, and the State reserva- 
tion, though not as beautiful as its pro- 
moters hoped, has at least saved the great- 
esTb landscape feature of the world and left 
it almost undisturbed. Many of the serious 
abuses with which visitors were formerly 
met have been removed. 

Thus every question which engaged the 
attention of the people of his State found 
in Mr. Cleveland, during his term as Gov- 
ernor, the most intelligent encouragement. 
The reform of the State civil service, the 
protection and preservation of the forest 
domain, the promotion of education and in- 
dustry, all had in him an active and intel- 
ligent supporter. 

So excellent had his administration been 
that, during the early part of 1884, a de- 
mand for his nomination for the Presidency 



116 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

went up from every part of tlie country. 
The canvass was carried on, however, with 
little aid from him. His appreciation of 
this great honor was well shown in a letter 
written on June 28, 1884, in which he 
said: 

" I feel that I now hold in my keeping a 
trust from the people of the State which 
nothing should induce me to surrender ex- 
cept the demand of the people of the United 
States. I am very sure that the office of 
President, with all its responsibilities, is fiot 
one to be sought for ambitious ends, and I 
suppose it should not be declined. I have 
full faith in the wisdom of my party, and 
look for such action in the coming conven- 
tion as will give the best guarantee of sound 
Democratic principles." 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE PEESIDENTIAL CANVASS AND ELECTION. 

Many influences combined to make the 
canvass and the election of 1884 as impor- 
tant as any in our history. A great many 
things had happened during the preceding 
eight years to unsettle political conditions. 
A disputed election in 1876 — followed by 



' THE PRESIDENTIAL CANVASS. 117 

four years' incumbency of a man who, 
though he made a fair record, had never 
commended himself to the conscience of 
the country, because of the methods by 
which he had been chosen — had done much 
to break up the party long dominant. 
When to this were added the methods 
adopted in the election of 1880, and the 
subsequent tragic death of Garfield, the 
situation was greatly intensified. It be- 
came plain, as President Arthur's fairly 
commendable administration wore to its 
close, that, in spite of its vigor and clean- 
ness, he would not be able to command the 
entire confidence of his party. The Blaine 
element was still dominant, and was able, 
in 1884, for the first time so to control the 
party as to secure the nomination of its 
favorite. 

On the other hand there had been a 
good many changes in the Democratic situa- 
tion. In 1880 Samuel J. Tilden had felt 
called upon to decline a renomination, not 
so much because he was anxious to avoid 
the candidacy, but mainly because of the 
bitter opposition among certain ele- 



118 A LIFE OF O ROVER CLEVELAND. 

ments of his party in the State of New 
York. He had so long dominated the 
party, his ideas of administration and his 
political methods had become so well 
known, that it was clearly impossible to 
get entirely away from the circle of his in- 
fluence, and indeed the mass of the'party 
saw with clearness that to do this would 
mean inevitable defeat and continued ex- 
clusion from participation in the gov- 
ernment of the country and the making of 
its policy. It was no more than natural 
in such a crisis that the drift of the Demo- 
cratic party should have been toward Mr. 
Cleveland, who had not been active in 
politics during the most of Tilden's 
later career, and was never known as one 
of his special friends, either personally or 
politically. Indeed, so far as he had any 
leanings at that time, they were rather 
opposed to the Tilden management than 
favorable. 

This was due, in the main, to the fact that 
Tilden, in choosing his managers, had put 
forward in Erie County and the western 
part of the State some men scarcely credit- 



THE PRE8IDEFT1AL CANVASS. 119 

able to the party. This ^vas the ohl iiiaua- 
ger's way, and, while he seldom did it, the 
fact that he had made au exception in the 
locality mentioned had the effect of keep- 
ing men of the Cleveland stamp away from 
his standard and support. It must not, 
however, be concluded from this that he 
was an opponent of Tilden or of his re- 
form ideas. It is needless to say that he 
had no sympathy with the war waged upon 
him by the canal ring and by party dis- 
organizers everywhere. His attitude was 
due entirely to the facts thus briefly out- 
lined. 

Mr. Cleveland had been nominated for 
Governor of New York because of his re- 
form record as Mayor of Buffalo. This 
put him in entire accord with the best men 
among the old Tilden element. This was 
due to his recognized merit, as well as to 
the fact that many of the enemies of the 
older man had become also the enemies of 
the younger one. It did not take Mr. 
Cleveland long to make a considerable num- 
ber of enemies in his own party, and as 
they included most of the men who had 



120 A LIFE OF (^h^lf^R CLEVELAND. 

also been the enemies of Mr. Tilden the 
two influences co-operated to make the 
friends of one friendly to the other ; so 
when the final withdrawal of Tilden 
from the politics of New York became a 
necessity on account of advanced age and 
increasing infirmities, it was natural that he 
and his friends should cast about for some- 
one upon whom his mantle might fall. 

It was also clear to the party in the 
country at large that a nomination must 
be made which would command the sup- 
port of the great body of independent 
voters of the States surrounding and tribu- 
tary to it. Mr. Cleveland's course as 
Governor had been such as to command 
the admiration of these people. This de- 
mand was increased by distrust of Mr. 
Blaine, the opposing candidate ; so that 
two influences again contributed to give 
unusual strength in his party to the new 
political figure that had risen so suddenly. 
The Tilden element,* representing the re- 
form sentiment in the Democratic party, 
and the independent element, representing 
the progressive sentiment in the Kepub- 



THE PRESIDBJSTJTl CANVASS. 121 

lican party and among tliose men attacliecl 
to neither, were of themselves the two most 
important elements in the politics of that 
day. 

The one great political manager — other 
than himself — developed by Tilden's ca- 
reer was Daniel Manning. He early 
attached himself to the fortunes of Mr. 
Cleveland. He saw clearly the patriotic 
as well as the political policies repi'esented 
by this new figure in State politics. So it 
was not at all surprising that, when the 
Democratic Convention for the selection of 
delegates to the National Convention to be 
held in Chicao'o met in Saratoo^a in June, 
1884, Mr. Manning and his friends should 
be able to control it, and choose an unin- 
structed delegation, bound by the unit rule, 
as had been common in New York. Then 
the full vote of the Empire State was cast 
for the nomination of Grover Cleveland for 
the Presidency of the United States in 
the face of bitter opposition from certain 
elements in New York City, mainly growing 
out of the GubeiTiatorial campaign of 1879, 
in which the regular Democratic candidate 



122 A LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 

had been defeated because of the presence 
in tlie field of a bolting candidate. 

The canvass for Presidential preferences 
had been going on in other States of the 
Union, and a strong sentiment had devel- 
oped in favor of the nomination of Mr. 
Cleveland. When the convention met at 
Chicago it Avas at least clear that he was 
the leading candidate, although the senti- 
ment in his favor was not so marked as to 
give assurance of his nomination. Good 
management was necessary. The elements 
defeated at Saratoga, and represented in the 
New York delegation, went to Chicago and 
waged bitter opposition to the nomination 
of Mr. Cleveland. 

The National Democratic Convention of 
that year was in mauy respects a remark- 
able body. For the first time since the 
war, it was composed mainly of the younger 
men of the party — men who, under the 
dominance of the Tilden sentiment, had 
become active in politics. Its President 
was William F. Vilas of Wisconsin, who 
attained there a prominence he has de- 
served so well that he is now sei'ving with 



THE PRESIDENTIAL CANVASS. l'^^ 

acceptance as a United States Senator from 
the State of Wisconsin. 

On the third day of the convention, after 
many efforts to postpone nominations, and 
the defeat of all obstructive tactics, the 
first ballot was taken and resulted as fol- 
lows: Cleveland, 392 ; Bayard, 170; Thur- 
man, 98 ; Randall, 78; McDonald, 56, and 
36 votes scattering among several others 
who were not formally presented as candi- 
dates at the convention. Adjournment 
was taken until the next day, when upon 
the second ballot, the result was declared 
as 683 for Cleveland, 81i for Bayard, 45i 
for Hendricks, with a few votes distributed 
as usual among other candidates. Cleve- 
land had thus secured on this ballot 136 
votes more than the t^vo-thirds necessary to 
nominate. Thomas A. Hendricks of In- 
diana was nominated as the candidate for 
Vice President. 

There has never been a convention in 
the history of the country at which both 
sentiment and management combined more 
emphatically to produce the i-esult than the 
National Democratic Convention of 1884. 



124 A LIFE OF GROVEK CLEVELAND. 

There was general agreement that to be 
successful a candidate satisfactory to 
the independent voters must be chosen. 
These were not confined to the Republican 
party, in spite of the fact that as the result 
of that campaign thei'e grew up a distinc- 
tive element known as Mugwumps — those 
Eepublicans who refused to vote for the 
candidate nominated by their party for 
President. A much greater number of in- 
dependent voters, perhaps ten to one, en- 
rolled themselves with the Democrats, 
willingly avowing themselves partisans 
so long as that party meant the domi- 
nance of the ideas of Grover Cleve- 
land. 

The fact is often overlooked or forgotten 
that it is impossible for a sentiment to find 
expression in one party without making at 
the same time a strong impression upon the 
other and opposing party. Any given set 
of political conditions is the outgrowth of 
a sentiment among the great body of the 
people, and not in any one party. If there 
is a demand for the reform of abuses among 
the people it will find expression in both 



THE PRESIDENTIAL CANVASS. 125 

parties. If there is a tendency to cater to 
a demagogic idea the same thing will be 
true ; so that while there was perhaps a 
few thousand Mugwumps, there w^ere hun- 
dreds of thousands of independent, intelli- 
gent, thinking men, who became Democrats 
or were turned to that party, and have since 
remained with it. Wherever it was to be 
found, or however it had been promoted, it 
was this sentiment that made success possi- 
ble in l^ovember, 1884. 

In 1884 this sentiment was so strong 
that it took an organized form. Many of 
the Republicans who revolted against their 
party were among the oldest and most 
sturdy that it had; in their ranks were 
found many of the old Abolitionists and 
Freesoilers. They were not content with 
merely recording their protest. They or- 
ganized not only to defeat the candidate of 
the party with which they had been affil- 
iated, but to elect a man belonging to the 
party to which they had been oj^posed. 
They went to work systematically, appoint- 
ing their local and State committees, and 
these in their turn choosing a National 



126 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

committee composed of men of the 
higliest character. 

The protest against the nomination of 
Mr. Blaine went on ; nothing that party 
managers could do, no denunciations that 
newspaper organs could indulge in, had the 
slightest effect. Personal abuse of the 
best men in the community was, perhaps, 
never resorted to more than during the 
canvass of 1884. The partisan newspa- 
pers appeared to resent the prominence of 
any man who was called a " Mugwump," 
although there was scarcely a community 
so small that it did not contain one or 
more members of this hated class. They 
had come together with a common pur- 
pose, and they organized for a common end. 

After the appearance of Mr. Cleveland's 
letter of acceptance, about the middle of 
August, this independent support became' 
stronger than before. He showed in this 
utterance that as a candidate he had noth- 
ing to take back or to explain so far as his 
attitude on public questions was concerned. 
He thus attracted still more men from the 
ranks of his opj)onents, and when the cam- 



THE PRESIDENTIAL CANVASS. 127 

paign was fairly organized it was found 
that the names of George William Curtis, 
Carl SchurZj Henry Ward Beecher, Charles 
R. Codman, Thomas Went worth Higgin- 
son, Henry L. Piei'ce, James Freeman 
Clarke, Bainbridge Wadleigh, Daniel H. 
Chamberlain, then of South Carolina, now 
of New York; ex-Governors Blair of 
Michigan and Pound of Wisconsin, to- 
gether witli thousands more of the same 
type of men, were doing what they could 
in support of the Democratic candidate for 
the Presidency. 

These were joined by many important 
newspapers. Harper''s WeeMy, which had j-, 
for a long time been the strongest sup- "" 
porter of the Republican party among the 
illustrated papers, and outspoken Repub- 
lican papers like the Herald and Transcript 
of Boston ; the Herald^ Times, and Evening 
Post of New York; the Ti7nes of Phila- 
delphia ; the JSfeivs of Indianapolis, to- 
gether with many among the smaller 
papers everywhere in the country, were 
giving their support to Mr. Cleveland. 
The result of this was not merely tem- 



1-28 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

porary. In the main this support did not 
fall away from Mr. Cleveland after lie was 
elected or leave the Democratic party, but 
gave it such help as they thought it de- 
served. As a result all the papers men- 
tioned, and of the number behind them 
unheralded, have done good service in the 
cause of tariff reform since it became the 
dominant issue. 

^ Mr. Cleveland has always refused to 
make a personal canvass for the Presidency. 
He did this in 1884, when he was Gov- 
ernor, as he did also in 1888, when he was 
the chief executive of the nation. Instead 
of making a general canvass, he went about 
his work in the usual way, giving little 
attention to mere political managemeDt. 
He made two short speeches, one at 
Newark, N. J., in the county of his birth, 
and another at Bridgeport, Conn. Neither 
was more than a quarter of an hour in 
length, and neither was what might be 
termed a partisan or a campaign speech. 

In the Newark speech he first showed 
that he thoroughly understood the abuses 
of our system of tariff taxation. None of 



TEE PRESIDENTIAL GANVA8S. 129 

his declarations on this important question 
has been stronger than that in which he 
declared his convictions upon the question 
as it was then presented to the public 
mind. He said : 

" It is quite plain, too, that the ]3eople 
have a riglit to demand that no more monej^ 
shall be taken from them, directly or in- 
directly, for public uses than is necessary 
for an honest and economical administration 
of public affairs. Indeed, the right of the 
government to exact tribute from the citizen 
is limited to its actual necessities, and every 
cent taken from the people beyond that re- 
quired for their protection by the govern- 
ment is no better than robbery. We snrely 
mnst condemn, then, a system whicli takes 
from the' pockets of the people millions of 
dollars not needed for the suj^port of the 
government, and which tends to the inangu- 
ration of corrupt schemes and extravagant 
expenditures." 

He expressed in the Bridgeport speech, 
as he had done in many public utterances 
before, both as Mayor and as Governor, his 
keen sense of the responsibilities imposed 
upon him. In it he said : 

" The world does not present a more sub- 
lime spectacle than a nation of freemen 
determining their own course, and the leader 



130 A LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 

whom they follow at such a, time might well 
feel a sober, solemn sense of responsibility. 
The plaudits of his fellows he should feel, 
but only to feel more intensely what a 
serious thing it is to have in keeping their 
hopes and their confidence." 

Events move so rapidly in this country 
that the electors of the present day have 
perhaps forgotten that the October elec- 
tion in Ohio was formerly considered a sort 
of preliminary to the Presidential election. 
It made no difference that the Eepublicans 
had always carried the State in a Presiden- 
tial year. The Democrats ever showed a 
determination to follow them in making 
the canvass there as spirited as possible. 
In order to impress his countrymen Mr. 
Blaine made an extensive electioneering 
tour through the State and put forth the 
most active efforts in order to command 
a favorable result, and the Republicans 
carried the State, while the Democrats, as 
usual, carried Georgia and West Virginia. 

The election was held on Tuesday, 
November 4, and resulted in the choice of 
219 electors who voted for Cleveland, and 
182 who voted for Mr. Blaine. Cleveland 



THE PRE8IDEISTIAL CANVASS. 131 

luid secured tlie necessary votes, together 
with his majority, in twenty States, while 
Mr. Blaine had carried eighteen. Of the 
popular vote Cleveland had 4,874,596, 
Blaine 4,850,981 ; the Greenback candi- 
date, who had bolted from the Democratic 
party af fcer the nomination of Mr. Cleveland, 
received about 170,000, and St. John, the 
Prohibition candidate, had aboufc 150,000. 

Because of the closeness of the vote in 
New York, the Republicans did not at 
once concede the election of Mr. Cleve- 
land, whose majority was tinally determined 
to be 1047. But as the election had been 
conducted fairly, there was no opportunity 
to question its honesty or its evident re- 
sult ; so, within a few days, the party that 
had profited by a disputed election in 
1876 was compelled to accept the adverse 
verdict of 1884. But they did not do this 
without venting their rage upon the ele- 
ments that had been supposed to con- 
tribute to their defeat. They forgot for 
the moment that their candidate had gone 
into the campaign with a character much 
smirched, and that he had emerged from it 



132 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

in a worse condition. Tlie people had 
simply resented the foisting upon them of 
such a man. 

The result of the election was celebrated 
by the Democrats in a way thoroughly 
American. Jubilees, parades, and every 
kind of public demonstration were in- 
dulged in. As the party had been once 
premature in celebrating the election of 
Tilden in 1876, its members gave way 
to demonstrations of Joy that were perhaps 
doubled by the recollection of the previous 
inauspicious event. The sober sense of 
the people and of the newspapers that had 
supported the successful candidate soon 
found expression, and in a few weeks the 
result was looked upon as bringing greater 
responsibility to a party, and to the man 
who had led it, than any event since the 
election and inauguration of Lincoln. 

Mr. Cleveland was still Grovernor, and 
held the even tenor of his official way until 
the 1st of January, 1885, when in a mes- 
sage of a few words to the legislature he 
resigned his office and assumed the task 
of organizing his administration as Presi- 



THE PRESIDENTIAL CANVASS. 133 

dent of the United States. He received 
delegations of citizens from every part 
of the Union, heard appeals from the 
friends of public men thought of as 
fit to hold places in the Cabinet, and 
many good men were sent for after 
careful inquiry as to their character, their 
ambitions, and their probable fitness for 
various offices. 

But this was not all that the President- 
elect had to do in the two months between 
the time that he had resigned the Govern- 
orship and when he was to be inaugurated 
as President. Questions of public as well 
as party policy were to be considered. 
The successful candidate had decided views 
of his own on all great public questions, 
but he felt that he must of necessity put 
himself into the closest touch with the 
sentiment of his party and of the country. 
While many men no doubt looked forward 
to the time when they would hold some 
lucrative and honorable office, the struggle 
for place did not reach the noxious de- 
velopment that it showed four years later, 
when a party which had been expelled 



134 A LIFE OF OROVEU CLE} ELAND. 

from power after twenty-four years of 
tenure returned to exhibit to tlie nation 
the most disgraceful scramble that the 
world has ever seen. Although the Dem- 
ocratic party had been excluded from 
Federal offices so long, its members showed 
a degree of patience which did much to 
commend it to public favor, and to enable 
the man whom it had elected for President 
to gain and to keep the confidence of the 
people. 

Two important questions engaged the 
attention of Mr. Cleveland between the 
time of his election in November and his 
inauguration on March 4. On December 
23, 1884, he sent a letter to Mr. George 
William Curtis, President of the National 
Civil Service Keform League, in which he 
set forth his ideas on the use of government 
offices as party patronage. In this letter 
he promised that no partisan considera- 
tions should cause any relaxation on his 
part of an earnest eifort to enforce the Civil 
Service law, then new to the statute books. 
He emphasized the fact, however, that a 
large number of men holding public places 



THE PRESIDENTIAL CANVASS. 135 

had forfeited all just claim to retention, 
because tliey had used tlieir offices for 
party purposes. "They had done this/' 
he declared, " in disregard of their duty to 
the people, and because, instead of being 
decent public ser\^ants, they have proved 
themselves offensive partisans, and un- 
scrupulous manipulators of party man- 
agers." 

This term, " offensive partisans," was to 
gain wider currency than its author per- 
haps thought when he used it, but the dis- 
tinction between such men and those 
public servants who had done their duty 
faithfully and well was clear to his mind, 
and was never lost sight of in prac- 
tice during his entire administration. In 
this respect he did what he promised in 
the letter to Mr. Curtis, when he declared 
that " such officials should be tauo^ht that 
efficiency, fitness, and devotion to public 
duty are the conditions of their continu- 
ance in public places, and that the quiet 
and unobtrusive exercise of their rights 
is the reasonable measure of party ser- 
vice." 



136 A LIFE OF GBOVER CLEVELAND. 

On February 24, only eiglit days before 
his inauguration, be addressed a letter to 
A. J. Warner, then a representative in 
congress from Obio, and otbers, on tbe 
question of devising some metbod of re- 
beving tbe government from tbe dangers 
threatened by the accumuLation in tbe 
Treasury of tbe United States of uncircu- 
lated and uncalled-for silver dollars. In 
this letter be took occasion to sound tbe 
alarm felt by himself and conservative men 
everywhere about the dangers surrounding 
the coinage of silver. He insisted that 
it was desirable to maintain and con- 
tinue in use tbe mass of gold coin as well 
as the mass of silver already coined. He 
declared that be believed this to be pos- 
sible only by a temporary suspension of 
the purchase and coinage of silver. He be- 
lieved it to be " of momentous importance 
to prevent tbe two metals from parting 
company; to prevent the increasing dis- 
placement of gold by the increasing coin- 
age of silver; to prevent tbe disuse of 
gold in tbe custom houses of the United 
States in tbe daily business of the people ; 



THE PRESIDENTIAL CANVASS. 137 

to prevent tlie ultimate expulsion of gold 
by silver." 

He did not attempt to exaggerate the 
dangers of the situation then existing, and 
the people of the country do not know 
even now to what extent wise management 
was necessary in order to ward off peril. 
He concluded his letter by recommending 
that the compulsory coinage of silver pro- 
vided for by the Bland bill should be sus- 
pended for a time, and it is probable that 
if this had been done immediately upon 
the meeting of Congress, in December, 
1884, as recommended by President 
Arthur, the country would never have 
been subjected to the many perilous 
changes that have taken place in the con- 
dition of its finances. 

This was his first specific utterance on 
silver coinage, and everything that he has 
since said, whether in office or out, has 
shown that he has not had cause to 
change his views on this important 
question. He was then, as now, an 
avowed monometaPist, and he has always 
warned the people of the country against 



138 A LIFE OF GROVEB CLEVELAND. 

any of tile patent schemes presented in 
such numbers to Congress. 

The remainder of his time, in the interim 
between the resignation of the Governor- 
ship and his inauguration as President, was 
taken up with political work. He was 
ready for the serious duties that had de- 
volved upon him, and it may be said wdth 
truth that no man ever came to the Presi- 
dency with less of the outward prepara- 
tion that was formerly deemed essential to 
the man chosen to fill this great office. He 
had never been in politics in the ordinary 
acceptation of that term. As he had never 
looked forward to a political career for 
himself, so he did not think it necessary to 
train himself for one by seeking a position 
in the Common Council of his towm, or 
in the legislature of his State. He had 
never been Chairman of a State or County 
Committee, or an accepted manager of his 
j)arty. He had held offices, but he had 
never made any of them, whatever its char- 
acter, a partisan position, and its use for 
personal ends was entirely foreign to his 
nature and his ideas. 



THE PRESIDENTIAL CANVASS. 139 

The fact is sometimes overlooked, how- 
ever, that every place Mr. Cleveland had 
filled was an executive office and noth- 
ing else ; whether as an assistant to the 
District Attorney, Sheriff: of his county, 
Mayor of Buffalo, or Governor of New 
York, he had had the execution of the 
laws, not the making of them. • In each 
he was compelled to assume responsibility ; 
to exercise his judgment; to carry out now 
one existing law, then to promote the en- 
actment of a good measure or to put a veto 
on a bad or dans^erous one. AVhatever it 
was, he was compelled to do and dare ; he 
could not skulk behind the decrees of a 
caucus, or obey the behests of a pi-imary, or 
shield himself from a disagreeable necessity 
by throwing the blame upon somebody else. 

This character, with its peculiar fitness, 
and this remarkable political experience — 
have been set forth as briefly as possible, 
and yet as fully as necessary, in the preced- 
ing chapters of this work. We must now 
go with him to his inauguration as Presi- 
dent of the United States, the most august 
and responsible office in the world. 



140 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

ORGAmZING THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS. 

A FEW days before tlie 4tli of March, 
1885, the day fixed by law for the inaugu- 
ration of the President, Mr. Cleveland left 
his home in Albany for Washington. He 
was received by President Arthur A^ith a 
courtesy which always distinguished that 
remarkable man, and one of the pleasant 
features of politics is the close friendship 
that grew up between the two men. As 
the result of this, when the ex-President 
died, during the first year of Mr. Cleve- 
land's Administration, he had few more 
sincere mourners than the man who had 
succeeded him a few months before in the 
White House. Everything was done that 
could possibly contribute to the comfort of 
the new occupant of the Executive Man- 
sion. 

Perhaps no inauguration was ever 
marked with more j^^g^^ntry and more 
genuine rejoicing than that which ushered 
Grover Cleveland into the highest ofiice 



ORGANIZING EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS. 1 4 1 

in the gift of Ms countrymen. The day 
was one of those perfect ones that finally 
gained, from the new President, the distinc- 
tive name of " Cleveland weather." The 
exercises had been organized with the 
greatest elaboration, and by men long 
accustomed to the handling of crowds and 
to the manao;ement of ceremonials. The 
regular army, the marines, the navy, the 
artillery, the Marine Band, and large de- 
tachments from the militia of the sev- 
eral States, especially from Pennsylvania, 
swelled the military procession to some- 
thing like 25,000 men. As usual, the 
formal ceremony of inauguration was com- 
pleted by the delivery, at the east front of 
the Capitol, of the inauguration message by 
the new President. 

It had been the custom of almost every 
President since the beginning to read his 
address. Mr. Cleveland departed from 
this, and rising before the great audi- 
ence, on that most beautiful of March 
days, he delivered his inaugural address as 
coolly and as calmly as if he had been talk- 
ing with his friends in a parlor. His com- 



142 A LIFE OF GBOVER CLEVELAND. 

posure and self-confidence were remarked 
at the time, and not long ago one of his 
bitterest personal and political enemies 
said in a lecture that nothing like it had 
ever been seen in the history of the world 
— the spectacle of a man who, without ex- 
perience in the larger politics, had come to 
the Presidency, standing unabashed be- 
fore his countrymen to deliver his in- 
augural address without a line of manu- 
script or a word of note before him. 

His inaugural address was pitched on 
the lofty plane which had distinguished all 
of his public utterances up to that time, 
and which has become more distinctive as 
his position among his countrymen has be- 
come more secure. There was a widely 
prevailing sentiment that the change from 
a party that had held power for twenty- 
five years to one that had been excluded 
from it during all that time had some 
elements of danger ; but he took occasion 
to assure his countrymen that although the 
executive branch was transferred to new 
keeping, it " was still the government of 
all the people, and should be none the less 



ORGANIZING EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS. 143 

an object of their affectionate solicitude," 
and he adjured his countrymen to renew 
their pledge of devotion to the Constitu- 
tion, which, as he eloquently expressed it, 
had " for almost a century borne the hopes 
and aspirations of a great people through 
prosperity and peace, and through the 
shock of foreign conflicts and the perils of 
domestic strife and vicissitudes." 

He proceeded to set forth at considerable 
length his conception of the duties of a 
Chief Magistrate to the people, and of the 
people to their Government, emphasizing 
the ideas that had found expression in 
previous utterances, and especially in his 
letters accepting the nomination for Gov- 
ernor and President. It is not toa. 
much to say that this inaugural address 
did more to win the confidence of the 
American people than all he had said or 
done before his election to that auo^ust 
office. It was pitched on such a high 
plane from first to last ; its loftiness of tone 
was so apparent ; the sincerity of the man 
who spoke it was accepted so unquestion- 
ingly and promptly, that the bitter par- 



144 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

tisans who had just been turned out of 
power, and their representatives in the news- 
papers, could find nothing in it to warrant 
the continuance of the petty warfare they 
had carried on until this time. He thus 
started auspiciously on the new work to 
which he had been called. 

On the day following the inauguration, 
he began the organization of the Executive 
Departments by sending to the senate 
the names of the men he had chosen as 
private secretary and as members of his 
Cabinet. 

The selection of the former was an easy 
task. It was natural that Mr. Cleveland 
should take with him from his old to his 
new duties Daniel S. Lamont, who had 
done such faithful work in Albany. It 
would not have been possible for the new 
President to find a man better fitted for the 
delicate and important duties intrusted to 
him. He had already demonstrated his 
ability and usefulness so thoroughly as to 
command the confidence and gain the ac- 
quaintance of many of the best men in the 
country. If this appointment had needed 



ORGANIZING EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS. 145 

justification, it was soon found in the rec- 
ord that Mr. Lamont made in his new 
office. For four years he w^ent in and out 
before the American people, without spot 
or blemish, making himself acceptable to 
men of all parties, gaining the friendship 
and good will of all the people with whom 
he was thrown in contact. More than any 
man who ever occupied that office before 
or since, he impressed himself upon the 
people of the country by his ability and 
tact. He soon became more than a private 
secretary, and was recognized as part and 
parcel of the Administration. It is certain 
that no incumbent of that office came into 
such close personal and political rela- 
tions with his chief as did Daniel S. La- 
mont. As the result of it he was almost 
as well known, when he left office with Mr. 
Cleveland on the 4th of March, 1889, as 
was his chief himself. Keen, calm, self- 
collected, saying no more than he must, 
with an almost perfect insight into men, 
during all this time he was not only the 
most effective of private secretaries, but 
the close and acknowledged friend of 



146 A LIFE OF GBOVER CLEVELAND. 

the President. The relations thus formed 
have been maintained dming all the inter- 
vening years, and there is, perhaps, no man 
upon whom Mr. Cleveland relies more im- 
plicitly than upon his old-time secretary. 

The newer generation of Democrats had 
had little opportunity to prove their fit- 
ness for executive office. This made it 
almost necessary when a Democrat came 
to the Presidency that he should look 
about him carefully, and should conclude 
to take from the senate some of the men 
who should be called into his Cabinet as 
official advisers. Apparently, Mr. Cleve- 
land did not feel bound to follow any 
precedents in the choice of a Cabinet, so 
he proceeded upon a plan of his own. 
Under no obligation to give a Cabinet 
place to any man because he had been 
voted for in the convention which nomi- 
nated the saccessful candidate ; his own 
nomination having been made so spontane- 
ously that he had incurred no obligations ; 
the log-rolling elements having been ab- 
sent from the convention and canvass more 
thoroughly than in any previous case in 



ORGANIZINO EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS. 147 

the liistoiy of the country, he looked 
about him and found that he could best 
satisfy himself by taking three members 
of his Administration from the United 
States Senate. He consulted freely with 
everybody entitled to consideration, 
whether he was the possesser of a great 
name or not. Many a man, occupying a 
comparatively humble place, found him- 
self summoned to Albany to give some ac- 
count of those whose names had been men- 
tioned in the press or presented by their 
friends for appointment as members of 
the Cabinet. 

The men chosen from the Senate were 
Thomas F. Bayard of Delaware, as Secre- 
tary of State; L. Q. C. Lamar of Mis- 
sissippi, as Secretary of the "Interior, and 
Augustus H. Garland of Arkansas, as 
Attorney General. ^ 

The nomination of Mr. Bayard was a 
natural, almost an inevitable one. It 
would have been difficult for a Democratic 
President, seeking a man to fill the office 
of Secretary of State, to pass by the name 
of Mr. Bayard. To great ability, to posi- 



148 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

tion won as well as inherited, lie added 
long and distinguished service, industry, 
wide acquaintance with public men and 
measures, thorough devotion to his party, 
the broadest and most unquestioned 
patriotism, and a character absolutely un- 
sullied. Passing through a period the 
most corrupt that this country had known, 
no man had or has ever so much as whis- 
pered a word against the character or the 
motives of Thomas F. Bayard. 

Mr. Lamar had seen service in the House 
of Representatives before the war, had 
borne a leading and honorable part in the 
ill-starred and short-lived effort to establish 
the Southern Confederacy, and had been 
sent back to the lower house of congress 
as i'Jon as hi^ people had gained control of 
their forces from the pestiferous carpet- 
baggers who had invaded the South like 
the plagues of ancient Egypt. He bore a 
quiet part until in 1875, when, after the 
death of Charles Sumner, he distinguished 
himself by the delivery ik the House of 
Representatives of a eulogy which at once 
carried him to the front as an orator and as 



OmANIZINQ EXEGUTttB IfEPARTMENTS. Ud 

a man of large mind and of distinguished 
ability. The step to the senate was an 
easy one, and while there he distin- 
guished himself by many acts of the 
highest patriotism. When the State of 
Mississippi instructed its senators to vote 
for a bill having much financial heresy in 
it Mr. Lamar absolutely refused to obey 
these instructions, and appealing to the 
people of his State was re-elected. In 
every place he had proved himself an 
honest, able, patriotic public servant- — a 
man of deep sentiment and of poetic in- 
stincts, but one who had so much about 
him of the practical that he was far more 
of a success in an executive ofiice than 
even his friends had thought possible. 

Augustus H. Garland first «ame to '^e 
fore after the war as Governor of the State 
of Arkansas. Perhaps in no State in the 
Union did plunder run riot with less fear 
of punishment, but the very violence of 
this corruption soon produced a cure, and 
it so happened that Arkansas was practi- 
cally the first State in the South to regain 
full control of its own affairs. That it did 



150 A LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 

SO with success was largely due to the wis- 
dom and ability of Mr. Garland, who, as 
its first Democratic Governor, found in it 
conditions of the most serious kind, and 
grappled with them so successfully that he 
not only redeemed his own State, but set 
an example to the other States that they 
were quick to follow. 

The man chosen for Secretary of war, 
William C. Endicotfc of Massachusetts, had 
had a creditable judicial career and had 
been the candidate of his party for Gov- 
ernor of that State. Though without 
experience in an executive office he was 
appointed to a position which, important 
in itself, had declined in the demands that 
it made upon the holder of it. 

* As Secrel^ary of the Treasury — in reality 
at the time mentioned the most important 
position in the gift of the President — Dan- 
iel Manning of New York was chosen. 
From humble beginnings, Mr. Manning 
had made his way up until he had occu- 
pied an enviable position as a newspaper 
manao^er and banker. As an incident of 
these, and under the distinguished tutelage 



ORGANIZINO EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS. 151 

of Samuel J. Tilden, Mr. Mannino: had, 
for mauy years, taken an active part in 
politics as a manager for his party, in its 
conventions as well as in its campaigns. 
He had never sought office for himself, and 
v^as, perhaps, quite as much surprised as 
any man when his name was first dis- 
cussed in connection with this great and 
important office. He took office at a time 
when the finances of the country were in a 
most difficult condition, but as responsibility 
was placed upon him, he developed such 
fitness for his place that, before a single 
year had passed, his name was impressed 
upon the public mind as one of the few 
great Secretaries of the Treasury, and will 
go down to history as representing a man 
scarcely less efficient in that great office 
than Albert Gallatin, Levi Woodbury, 
Salmon P. Chase, and Hugh McCulloch. 
When he resigned, after less than two 
years of service, with health impaired as 
the result of the magnitude of the duties 
and responsibilities put upon him, his po- 
sition as a great administrator, and as a 
figure in the history of his country, was 



152 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

universally recognized. Perhaps few men 
of his time have been mourned more sin- 
cerely than he when he died, early in 
1888. 

The President took the unusual step of 
choosing two Cabinet officers from his own 
State, whose dominance in the politics of 
the Union, especially in the Democratic 
party, had not grown less because of the 
great and rapid development of the West 
and South. The second man was William 
C. Whitney, chosen to be Secretary of the 
Navy. None of his selections more fully 
justified itself than did this one. It was 
soon conceded, almost without exception, 
that no occupant of that office in the his- 
tory of the country had shown the pos- 
session of greater practical ability. His 
training as a lawyer, and his experience 
in public service in the great city of New 
York, had given him just those gifts, and 
the capacity for work, which fitted him to 
carry out successfully the task of recon- 
structing the navy of the United States on 
new and modern lines. 

When General Grant returned from his 



ORGANIZING EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS. 153 

tour around the world a youug lawyer, 
named William F. Vilas, was engaged in 
the practice of the law in Madison, the 
capital town of Wisconsin. At a banquet 
given to the General in Chicago Mr. Vilas 
sprang at once to the front as one of the 
finished orators of the country. In 1884 
he had been chosen to preside over the 
National Convention which nominated Mr. 
Cleveland, and he it was whom the new 
President chose to fill the office of Post 
master General. He had been a lawyer in 
successful practice with whom politics was 
merely an incident. Of all the members 
of the Cabinet Mr. Vilas probably gave the 
closest attention to the business of his 
office in all its details, as well as to the 
making of its general policy. In 1888, 
when Mr. Lamar was taken from the head 
of the Interior Department and made a 
Justice of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, Mr. Vilas was transferred 
from the head of the Post-office Dej^art- 
ment to that of the Interior. In his new 
position he distinguished himself by the 
same unwearied industry and by that per- 



154 .1 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 

feet devotion to liis duties whicli had made 
him a reputation and enabled him greatly 
to improve the morale and the efficiency of 
the postal service. 

The President exercised the same care 
in filling the less dignified of the offices in 
his gift. Many of these places with but 
moderate salaries rise almost to the dignity 
of a Cabinet place. The men chosen for 
these positions were of a higher average 
character than any that had been seen for 
many administrations. 

Amonof them was Charles S. Fairchild 
of New York, who had served with accept- 
ability as Attorney General of his own 
State and was now transferred to Federal 
politics as Assistant Secretary of the 
Treasury, only to come to the head of that 
office upon the retirement of his chief, Mr. 
Manning. 

It is impossible to enumerate in the 
space at my disposal the names, and to de- 
scribe with anything like completeness the 
characters, of the men appointed to these 
secondary places. It seemed that the 
Democracy of every State in the Union 



ORGANIZING EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS 155 

had determined to put forward its best 
men ; and many a man whose business 
yielded him a large income was prevailed 
upon to accept an important office wdth a 
small salary and with the recognized neces- 
sity for much hard work. Among them 
may be mentioned George A. Jenks of 
Pennsylvania, who first became Assistant 
Secretary of the Interior and later Solicitor 
General of the United States; the late 
Malcom Hay of the same State, who, be- 
cause of ill-health, which soon resulted in 
his death, was comjDelled to give up the 
office of First Assistant Postmaster General, 
and was succeeded by Adlai E. Stevenson 
of Illinois, now the Democratic candidate 
for Vice President; Norman J. Colman, 
who became Commissioner of Agriculture, 
and gave the department such dignity and 
usefulness that it was raised to the rank 
of a Cabinet office, of which he became 
the first incumbent. Conrad N. Jordan 
of New York, one of the most experienced 
financiers of the country, accepted the 
position of Treasurer of the United States 
and impressed his ideas and policy upon 



156 A LIF£J OF GllOVER CLEVELAND. 

the general management of fiscal affairs. 
The late Joseph E. Johnston, the veteran 
soldier of the Confederacy, became Com- 
missioner of Railroads, and William S. 
Rosecrans, one of the heroes of the Union, 
accepted the position of Register of the 
Treasury, while John C. Black of Illinois, 
in every way an excellent soldier, became 
Commissioner of Pensions. 

The names mentioned are only specimens 
of the kind of men that Mr. Cleveland in- 
sisted should be drawn into the public ser- 
vice. There was less of the policy of tak- 
ing care of the " lame ducks " of politics 
than had ever been seen. Fewer of the 
names of men who by accident had got 
into congress, only to fail, were found 
among the appointees of the new President 
than had ever been known. As a result 
of this the number of political barnacles 
was smaller than usual under Mr. Cleve- 
land's administration. 

In the diplomatic service, which since the 
days of reconstruction had been growing 
rather better as to the ability and character 
of its members, the improvement was ac- 



ORGANIZING EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS. \b1 

celerated under Mr. Cleveland's administra- 
tion. This was shown by the sending of 
Edward J. Phelps of Vermont as Minister 
to England ; Robert M. McLane of Mary- 
land to France; George H. Pendleton of 
Ohio to Germany ; George V. N. Lathrop 
of Michigan to Russia ; Samuel S. Cox and 
Oscar S. Straus of New York, successively 
to Turkey ; J. B. Stallo of Ohio to Italy ; 
J. L. M. Curry of Vii^nia to Spain, and 
Charles Denby of Indiana to China. The 
minor offices, as well as the most impor- 
tant, were filled with the same general 
type of men as those already mentioned. 
As the result of this care few scandals 
were developed in the diplomatic and, con- 
sular service during Mr. Cleveland's ad- 
ministration. 

He proceeded in the same way to choose 
the best men he could find for collectors 
of the ports and postmasters of the princi- 
pal cities. In a few cases, where the Presi- 
dent felt bound to concede something to 
the local political managers, the result was 
not satisfactory to him or to the service, 
but there was very little of tliis, and Mr. 



158 A LIFh OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

Cleveland soon developed tlie unusual 
gift of putting a man out of office, witli a 
good deal more promptness than he had 
put him in, when he discovered that he 
either had not the ability to carry on its 
v^ork with efficiency, or that he lacked the 
character to maintain the high level which 
he himself had fixed for his administra- 
tion. 

Most of the men in important places 
were thus chosen with direct reference to 
their character and fitness. They were 
Democrats, of course, only a single appoint- 
ment, that of Postmaster of New York, 
having been made from men who were not 
avowed members of the President's own 
party. In this case the late Plenry G. 
Pearson had done so much to improve the 
postal service, in which he had grown up 
from boyhood, that he was reappointed by 
the President, and that, too, in spite of the 
protest of the more violent of his own 
partisans. 

The President had carried out his own 
ideas of what the civil service should 
be, not in mere clerkships or in petty 



THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATION. 159 

places, ill wliicli one man might do the 
work about as well as another, but in those 
great administrative positions where ability 
and character count for little unless they 
are united with peculiar fitness for execu- 
tive duties. 

CHAPTEE IX. 

THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATION. 



The ceremonials over, and the work of 
reorganizing the government intrusted to 
competent hands, the President and his 
advisers settled down to hard work. 

In reviewing briefly the history of the 
four years of Grover Cleveland's adminis- 
tration as President, it will be impossible 
to follow at all times the chronolocrical 
method. A more satisfactory and cer- 
tainly a more logical plan is to treat it 
topically ; that is, to review the distinctive 
work of the various departments. I have 
no purpose of writing a history of every 
detail of that administration which for 
four years conducted the affairs of the 
country so successfully, but a brief view 



160 A LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 

conducted upon the lines marked out will, 
I am sure, suffice to give my readers a clear 
idea of the principles upon which Mr. 
Cleveland did his work, and the success he 
had in putting those principles into prac- 
tice. 

However able the advisers of a Presi- 
dent may be he will, if he is a man of 
commanding ability and lofty chai'acter, 
dominate his administration at nearly 
every point. Everything done cannot be 
his, but, as a rule, no great thing can be 
done unless it is the expression of his 
opinion and the execution of his policy. 

Mr. Cleveland did not treat his Cabinet 
officers as mere clerks. He looked upon 
them as helpers in a great cause — men 
of standing in the country, carefully 
trained in public life, who, believing 
as he did as to the general principles of 
government, might impress their own ideas 
upon the detail work of their depai'tments 
and carry them out as best they could. 
But everywhere and at all times the great 
policies that he had enunciated during the 
few years of his public life were soon 



THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATION^. 161 

rec0gmzed as the dominant ideas of the 
administration. That these were adopted 
in many cases upon the suggestion of his 
Secretaries made them none the less his. 
He insisted that these men should develop 
their own plans and policies, believing that 
their ideas were in substantial accord with 
his own. 

Generally speaking, the politics of this 
country are pretty free from serious diffi- 
culties with foreign governments, so that 
when complications arise that in other lands 
might be looked upon as trivial, they pro- 
duce a sense of irritation quite out of 
proportion to their real importance. Dur- 
ing the four years of Mr. Cleveland's ad- 
ministration no serious misunderstanding 
arose, and yet there was abundant occasion 
for diplomatic intervention, and for the 
careful conduct of the matters assigned to 
the Secretary of State. There was no 
scandal in the management of the depart- 
ment. No attempt was made to exploit a 
foreign policy, when nothing in the situa- 
tion required it. Nobody was able to use 
the department to enforce the collection 



162 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

of vast sums of blood money from 
friendly, tliougli petty governments. The 
efforts to collect claims against Peru, 
which, made under Garfield, had been 
abandoned under Arthur, were doomed 
to ignominious failure under Mr. Cleveland 
and Mr. Bayard. A man named Jewett 
tried in this way to lodge a claim for some 
$50,000,000 against the Government of 
Brazil, but upon investigation it was found 
that if any loss had resulted it could not 
amount at the utmost to more than a thou- 
sand dollars. Still further investigation 
showed that the whole thing was trumped 
up. The Secretary dismissed it, with a 
prompt and curt refusal to give it any fur- 
ther official consideration. 

Fewer demands than usual arose for the 
protection of American citizens abroad. 
Such came, however, from Mexico, Eng- 
land, and Turkey. In the first-named 
country a somewhat ridiculous person 
named Cutting was arrested for acts com- 
mitted in this country, and ^vas brought up 
for trial on the south of the Rio Grande. 
A protest from the department against the 



THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATION. 163 

action of the Mexican Government was 
effective, and the offender, no doubt much 
to his own discomfiture and a loss of the 
notoriety which he so much coveted, was 
released from custody. It Avas one of those 
petty incidents that could not be entirely 
dismissed, but it was little more than an 
annoyance. 

Intervention was asked by naturalized 
American citizens of Irish birth, tried 
under English laws, for offenses committed 
in England. Their cases were carefully 
considered and representations made to the 
the government of Her Majesty that their 
release would be agreeable to the authori- 
ties of this country. It appeared, however, 
that the prisoners did not claim the pro- 
tection of this government at the time of 
arraignment and trial, and that they had 
been fairly tried under English laws and 
convicted of serious offenses against person 
and property. So it became evident that 
their claim for protection from their 
adopted country was not well founded. 

Perhaps nothing more distinctive was 
done during the entire administration than 



164 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

the success of Oscar S. Straus, Minister to 
Turkey, in putting the American missions 
and the schools connected with them upon a 
recognized basis. For many years before 
Mr. Cox and Mr. Straus were sent to 
Turkey, our rejDresentatives there had been 
little more than ridiculous. Some of them 
had been men who neither knew nor cared 
about the work that had been intrusted to 
them, while others looked only for a cer- 
tain notoriety for themselves. But Mr. 
Straus went carefully to work to correct 
existing wrongs and to place the mis- 
sions and their schools upon a perma- 
nent basis. In this he was eminently suc- 
cessful. He was a business man of large 
experience as well as a lawyer well trained 
in his profession. He appeared to know just 
what ought to be done and how to do it, 
and to have a faculty for dealing success- 
fully with the Oriental mind. The com- 
mendations bestowed upon him and upon 
Mr. Cleveland's administration since his 
return were earned by strong ideas and 
excellent intentions carried into practice. 
During the earlier part of the adminis- 



THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATIOX. 165 

tration a compreliensive treaty with China 
was negotiated by the Secretary of State 
under the direction of the President. 
Under the provisions of this treaty the 
Chinese Government agreed to meet the 
views of the United States and to prevent 
further immigration into this country of 
Chinese laborers. But the senate, moved 
by a desire to gain a partisan advantage, 
inserted in this treaty some insignificant 
amendments w^hich the Emperor of China 
refused to ratify or accept. It was this 
refusal to accept a definite treaty — a re- 
fusal based entirely upon a supposed 
partisan advantage — that rendered neces- 
sary the drastic legislation of the last year 
of the Cleveland administration, which 
took form in what was known as the 
" Scott law." Its effects were felt, too, in 
the enactment by a succeeding congress 
of an exclusion law, to take the place of 
one that had expired by its own terms 
— a law which even some of the extreme 
advocates of the exclusion policy have 
felt called upon to condemn. There is little 
doubt that if the Bayard treaty had been 



166 A LIFE OF GBOVER CLEVELAND, 

ratified further immigration of Chinese to 
this country would have been prevented by 
agreement quite as effectively as it is now 
by force. 

A peculiar complication arose with Aus- 
tria early in 1885. Soon after Mr. Cleve- 
land's accession to office he nominated as 
Minister to Italy a resident of Virginia, 
A. M. Kieley by name. It turned out that 
in 1870 Mr. Kieley had made a speech at 
a public meeting in Richmond, in his State, 
in ^vhich he had indulged in violent de- 
nunciations of King Victor Emanual for 
his treatment of the Pope. This having 
been developed, the Italian Government, 
through its representative in Washington, 
intimated to the Department of State that 
Mr. Kieley was persona noii grata to the 
king. The appointee may have been lack- 
ing somewhat in the diplomatic quality, 
but it was a petty affair for a great gov- 
ernment to claim as a cause of offense. 
His nomination was withdrawn. Later 
his name was sent to the senate to fill 
the office of Minister to Austria-Hungary. 

Mr. Kieley had married a woman of 



THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATION. 167 

Jewish birth, and the anti-semitic agitation 
was then at its fiercest throughout all the 
German-speaking countries. For some rea- 
son, therefore, the Austrian Government 
made his withdrawal from Italy an excuse 
for objecting to his appointment as Minister 
to Vienna, and no other reason being avail- 
able the fact that his ^vife belonged to 
the race then persecuted was put forward. 
The Austrian Minister I'epresented to the 
Secretary of State and to the President 
that no Jewess could be received in the 
social circles in Vienna, and that, as a 
consequence, her husband would not be an 
acceptable Minister to the court of that 
country. 

The President and his Secretary refused 
to accept an excuse so flimsy, and the 
Secretary of State in two letters to the 
Austrian Minister resented the objections 
based upon such an allegation. He re- 
buked the religious bigotry which could 
suggest such a course, and announced that 
the United States would never assent to 
the creation or enforcement of such tests 
as Austria sought to impose. The letters 



168 ,4 LIFE OF GBOVEIl CLEVELAND. 

which Mr. Bayard wrote in defense of this 
policy have seldom been excelled in our 
diplomatic literature for careful wTiting, 
sound views, and loftiness of thought. 
The President, in his first annual message, 
announced the policy he had adopted, and 
added a spirited rebuke to that admin- 
istered by his Secretary. The mission to 
Austria was left vacant for more than a 
year in order to emphasize more thor- 
oughly the unalterable opposition of this 
country to the imposition of religious tests. 
In 1886 Mr. Phelps, Minister at the 
Court of St. James, concluded with Lord 
Rosebery, Minister of Foreign Affairs 
under Mr. Gladstone, as the representative 
of Her Majesty's Government, a treaty pro- 
viding for the extradition of criminals who 
should escape from the jurisdiction of one 
country into that of another. It added 
four new extraditable offenses to the seven 
already recognized by existing treaties. 
These were : Manslaughter, burglary, 
embezzlement or larceny to the value of 
$50 or <£10 sterling or upward, and mali- 
cious injuries to property whereby the 



THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATION. 169 

life of any person should be endangered, 
if such injuries should constitute a crime 
according to the laws of both the contract- 
ing parties. 

When the senate received the treaty 
from its committee on Foreio-n Affairs it 
was discovered that offensive words con- 
cerning the use of explosives had found a 
place in the treaty. It was assumed by 
the Republican press and speakers that 
this was an attempt on the part of 
England to secure the arrest of certain 
men charged with the use of dynamite ; 
and the interpolation was resented by 
many classes of citizens. 

At once the Republican press asserted 
that the offensive words had appeared in 
the original treaty as negotiated by Mr. 
Phelps. The discussion of this question 
was conducted in executive session of the 
senate, so that it was not difficult to main- 
tain such a position ; and it was an almost 
impossible task to expose the falsity of 
the charge. It was persistently asserted, 
even until the close of the Presidential 
canvass of 1888, but after the election 



IVO A LIFE OF' G ROVER CLEVELAND. 

when tlie tnitli came out it was made 
plain that the objectionable words had 
been inserted in the treaty, not by the 
original negotiators, but by the Republi- 
can majority of the senate committee on 
Foreign Affairs. 

In February, 1888, a treaty was con- 
cluded between the representatives of the 
United States, Great Britain, and Canada, 
which would have definitely settled the 
contention which, since 1818, had gone on 
between the two English countries on the 
one hand and the United States on the 
other hand. The negotiations were con- 
cluded in Washington, and a treaty, fair 
to all interests, one under which all diffi- 
culties were in* a fair way of being dis- 
posed of, was agreed to unanimously by 
the Commissioners from all the countries 
represented. The senators from Maine 
and Massachusetts, in pursuance of their 
usual policy on this question, with the 
hope of gaining a partisan advantage, 
raised the same old cry of surrender to 
Canada, and the treaty was rejected by a 
partisan vote. After its rejection the 



THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATION. IVI 

President sent to congress a vigorous mes- 
sage in which he announced that unless 
Canadian exactions upon our fishermen 
should cease, he would be compelled to 
resort to the retaliatory measures author- 
ized by laws already in existence, under 
which he would prohibit the transit of 
goods in bond across and over the ter- 
ritories of the United States to and from 
Canada. 

Thus the management of the State De- 
partment, which always comes closely into 
relation with the President himself, had 
been careful, just, and honest. 

The management of the finances of the 
government was, as has already been 
stated, intrusted in the first instance to the 
late Daniel Mannins;. When he took 
charge of the Treasury Department on 
March 6, 1885, he found two great and 
threatening perils. Nearly all of the 
indebtedness of the government that was 
due had been paid, and still the laws 
which yielded a surplus were in effect, and 
nearly one hundred millions of dollars a 
year more than there was any demand for 



172 A LIFE OF O ROVER CLEVELAND. 

in the legitimate and economical adminis- 
tration of the country were collected 
under them. At the same time all at- 
tempts to get the people of the country to 
use the silver dollars, heaped up in the 
vaults of the Treasury and in government 
warehouses, failed. 

This condition of aifairs continuing, and 
congress refusing and failing to pass laws 
for the reduction of the revenues, it Became 
evident, early in 1887, that this continued 
drain of money from the people was becom- 
ing a serious menace to business interests 
and was creating a feeling of great anxiety. 
There was the ever present danger that 
a severe stringency in the money market 
would be the natural effect. The Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, Charles S. Fairchild, 
who had succeeded Mr. Manning upon his 
retirement because of impaired health, de- 
termined early in 1887 that, instead of dis- 
tributing the purchases for the sinking fund 
over the whole fiscal year, as would natu- 
rally have been done under ordinary cir- 
cumstances, he would invest at once or as 
rapidly as possible the entire amount neces- 



THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATIOX. 173 

sary for this purpose, nearly twenty-eight 
millions. This was done in the. hope of re- 
lieving the financial situation at a period 
of the year when a larger amount of money 
than usual is necessary for the purchase 
and movement of the new crop. In 
pursuance of this policy, bonds to the 
amount of $24,844,650 were purchased at 
a cost of $27,842,237.10. By the prompt 
distribution of this large sum of money 
in the hands of the people the threatened 
danger was averted. 

The same policy was pursued in the suc- 
ceeding year, with the exception that in- 
stead of waiting until the crisis was immi- 
nent the circular was issued in A]3ril, four 
months earlier than in the preceding year. 
This was done for the purpose of inviting 
bids from the small holders of the obliga- 
tions of the government. By this method 
owners of bonds to the amount of $50 were 
permitted to offer their holdings direct to 
the Treasury. Many investoi's willing to 
turn their bonds into money by dealing 
directly with the government, but not in- 
clined to sell at a lower price to the banks 



1V4 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

or syndicates, were induced to pai't witli 
them, and thus do their share in the relief 
of the financial situation. Under this 
policy, and as the result of the circulars so 
issued, there were bought within less than 
eleven months bonds to the amount of 
$51,621,500, at a total cost of $60,230,- 
031.50. As these were interest-bearing, 
the sum saved to the Treasury in interest 
by the operation during the year under 
discussion was $14,790,352.53. 

The positive success of this policy was 
not sufficient to hinder the continued 
grow^tli of a surplus in the Treasury. 
This increased from $45,698,549.15 on 
June 30, 1887, to $111,880,808.67 on June 
30, 1888, the close of the last fiscal year 
of the Cleveland administration. In this 
emergency a decision was reached to 
increase the deposits in the national banks 
under the law of March 3, 1881, under the 
provisions of which it had been the policy 
of the Treasury to limit the deposits allowed 
to banks to 90 per cent, of the face value 
of the bonds deposited as security. In 
ordei' to make it more of an object to the 



THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATION. 175 

banks for them to draw some of this 
surplus money out of the Treasury and 
to get it into the channels of business, the 
plan was adopted of allowing a deposit to 
the par value of the 4j per cent, bonds 
and a deposit of 110 per cent, against the 
4 per cents, due in 1907. 

The result was so encouraging that while 
141 national banks held only $12,928,264.- 
46 at the close of the fiscal year on June 
30, 1887, on June 30, 1888, at the close of 
the next fiscal year, 294 national banks had 
acquired deposits to the amount of $59,979,- 
039.63. The number of banks had almost 
doubled, while the deposits had increased 
nearly fivefold. This money was distrib- 
uted fairly, without the least favoritism, 
and mthout inquiry as to the politics of 
the managers of the financial institutions 
so intrusted, and, finding its way into the 
banks of every section of the country, did 
much to promote healthful business de- 
velopment and to strengthen the confidence 
of the public. 

The credit of the government was well 
shown by the average selling price of the 



IV 6 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

4 per cent, bonds at different periods dur- 
ing tlie four years under treatment. In 
March, 1885, these bonds were worth 122.- 
326 and yielded investors an average in- 
terest rate of 2.731 per cent. In Decem- 
ber, 1885, the average price was 124.023 
and the investment value 2.614 per cent. 
In June, 1888, the average price had in- 
creased to 127.938 and the investment 
value had diminished to 2.245 per cent, 
per annum, so that in spite of the fact that 
the bonds had approached three years 
nearer to maturity their price had steadily 
advanced. In this way the confidence of 
both investors and the public was empha- 
sized and the conservatism and safety of 
our financial management was assured. 

The silver question was dealt with in 
such a way as to reduce to a minimum 
the danger which threatened the business 
interests of the country. On June 30, 
1884, the total coinage of standard silver 
dollars under the compulsory law of 1878 
had reached $175,355,829. Of this there 
were in circulation $137,052,472, of which 
the sum of $97,507,011 was represented 



THE WORK OF ADMlNlSTRA flON. 1 V 7 

by outstanding certificates, and $39,545,461 
by silver coin in circulation. On June 30, 
1888, the number of dollars coined under 
the same law had reached 299,424,790, of 
which 229,491,722 were outstanding in the 
shape of certificates, and 55,545,203 in 
coin. This increase was due in large meas- 
ure to the fact that the small denomina- 
tions of the Treasury notes were withdrawn 
from circulation, and their places taken by 
silver certificates of the same denomina- 
tions, as well as to the policy of the 
Treasury in not discrediting the silver 
coin, but a resolution to make the best 
possible use of it, and thus to relieve, as 
far as possible, a situation which had in it 
so many dangerous elements. 

The reduction of the public debt went 
on steadily in spite of the fact that almost 
none of the obligations of the government 
fell due. The amount of this reduction 
during the three full fiscal years from 
June, 1882, to June 30, 1885, was $299,- 
671,031.34. The reduction during the 
corresponding period of three years, from 
June 30, 1885, to June 30, 1888, was $312,- 



178 A LIFE OF GMOVER CLEVELAND, 

347,549.18, an average annual increase 
during tlie Cleveland administration of 
more than $4,000,000 over a like period 
under Garfield and Arthur. 

In spite, too, of the great increase in the 
volume of business the percentage of the 
cost of collecting the revenue continually 
declined. In the year 1885, about one- 
third of which was under a Democratic 
Secretary, the cost of collecting the cus- 
toms revenue was 3.77 per cent. ; in 1886 it 
declined to 3.30 ; in 1887 to 3.16, and in 1888 
to 2.98 ; and the cost of collecting the in- 
ternal revenues, which was 3.93 in 1885, 
gradually fell to 3.20 in 1888. These reduc- 
tions were made possible by the cutting off 
of useless offices and by the adoption by 
the government of the same methods that 
a business man would employ in private or 
corporate concerns. 

The last process was applied to the man- 
agement of the department proper. Un- 
necessary expenditures were cut off and 
the increase in the number of clerks in the 
different bureaus did not keep pace with 
the growth of work and efficiency. Far 



THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATION. 179 

more labor was done under the careful 
manao'ement of Mr. Mannino- and Mr. Fair- 
child with the same force than had been 
done under their predecessors. Exorbi- 
tant allowances and salaries were reduced, 
unnecessary bureaus abolished or consoli- 
dated, and in every way the working of the 
department was managed with a great deal 
of economy. 

CHAPTER X. 

THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATION (cONTINUED). 

It is scarcely necessary now to repeat in 
detail the old and oft-told story of the deg- 
radation of the United States between 
1868 and 1885. In his first annual report, 
submitted to the President in December 
of the last-named year, Mr. Whitney 
said : 

"The country has expended since July 1, 
1868, over seventj^-five millions of money on 
the construction, repair, equipment, and 
ordnance of vessels, which sum, with a very 
slight exception, had been substantially 
thrown away, the exception being a few 
ships now in piocf^ss of construction. . . . 



180 A LIFE OP GBOVm CLEVELAND. 

For about seventy of the seventy-five mill- 
ions expended by the department for the 
creation of a navy, we have nothing to 
show." 

The story of waste, w^aste of time, waste 
of money, and, worst of all, waste of mor- 
als, is a story of national shame. There 
was not only jobbery in building and 
jobbery in repairs, but there was jobbery 
in the detail management and in the pur- 
chase of the supplies necessary to keep our 
poor ships afloat and supply their men 
with clothing and provisions. 

When Secretary Whitney took charge 
of the department in March, 1885, the 
United States did not have a single war 
vessel which could have kept the seas for a 
week, and was at the same time dependent 
upon English manufacturers for gun forg- 
ings, armor, and secondary batteries. 
There were only two vessels on the Navy 
Register — the Tennessee, a ramshackle 
wooden craft since condemned, and the 
Chicago, then building, but not in commis- 
sion. At the close of the administration, 
the Register carried the names of four ves- 



THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATION. 181 

sels, first class not only in name, but in 
reality. They were tlie Chicago^ witli 
4590 tons displacement; Baltimore, \y\t\ 
4400 ; PMladelphia, with 4324 ; and the 
San Francisco, of 4083 tons. Several ves- 
sels were nearly completed at the close of 
Mr, Cleveland's administration, in March, 
1889, and the present efficiency of the 
navy is due almost entirely to the careful 
and faithful execution of the laws by Mr. 
Cleveland and his Secretary of the Navy. 
In less than a year after the close of the 
administration, the United States had 
eight or ten vessels of modern type, cred- 
itable to the most progressive nation upon 
earth, as they would have been useful to 
the most wai'like. 

The . President and Secretary Whitney 
early perceived that by no possibility could 
the government build a new navy, which 
would be both effective and American, 
while the United States were dependent 
upon foreign countries for guns and armor. 
In order to encourage manufactories for the 
furnishing of armor, the policy was adopted 
in 1886 of putting into a single contract all 



182 A LIFE OF QROVEB CLEVELAND. 

the armor authorized by congress, and at 
the same time of allowing bidders the nec- 
essary time to take steps for building the 
plant for making this armor. In June, 
1887, only two years after the advent of 
the new administration, a contract was en- 
tered into with the Bethlehem Iron Com- 
pany, of Bethlehem, Pa., under which a 
plant for the construction of both armor 
and gun steel was to be perfected. The 
work of providing this was still under way 
when Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Whitney left 
office. Under this policy the government 
was able to escape from the condition of 
industrial dependence into which twenty 
years of waste, incompetency, and dishon- 
esty had j)lunged it. From that time the 
government of the United States, like that 
of any other first-class power, was able to 
construct vessels built entirely from mate- 
rial, labor, and capital furnished by its own 
people. A great deal has been said about 
protecting and building up new industries, 
biit in this way effective work was done 
directly and legitimately. By a single act 
of enlightened policy Mr. Cleveland and his 



THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATION. 183 

Secretary had done more for the encourage- 
ment of an important industry than could 
have been accomplished by half a dozen 
new tariff schedules increasing the rates 
of duty. 

But it was not alone in the construction 
of new vessels that an advance was made. 
The business methods of the department 
and the management of its detail affairs 
were completely revolutionized. Bureaus 
were re-organized and put in charge of 
careful and honest men. The purchase of 
supplies for several of these bureaus was 
consolidated and placed under a responsi- 
ble head. So effective did this policy 
prove that while in 1884 and 1885 more 
than fifty per cent, of the value of the 
supplies was purchased in the open 
market without competition, in 1888 the 
proportion of supplies so purchased had 
been reduced to less than eleven per cent. 
All these improvements, with new vessels 
finished and under way, with new plant 
for armor and guns, built by private 
capital thus guaranteed work, the cost of 
the department was less than for the three 



184 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

fiscal years, 1886, 1887, and 1888, than for 
the three corresponding years of the pre- 
ceding administration. The total ex- 
penditures of the department for 1882, 
1883, and 1884, as fixed by statute and 
beyond the control of the Secretary, were 
$27,757,866.35. This included nearly 
$2,000,000 expended on steel cruisers and 
monitors. During the years 1886, 1887, 
and 1888 the total expenditures as fixed 
by congress were $30,910,486.25, in which 
were included two items, absent from the 
previous period, for increase of navy and 
vessels and monitors aggregating $3,347,- 
935.55. But the largest proportionate 
saving was made in the ordinary bureau 
expenses of the department directly under 
the control of the Secretary. 

For the full three years' period during 
President Arthur's administration this 
amounted to $20,224,531.28. For the last 
period, the corresponding three years under 
Mr. Cleveland, the expenses for the same 
bureaus were only $15,920,143.99. Reduc- 
tions were made in every bureau but one, 
while the expenditure for contingent ex- 



THE WOBK OF ADMimSTRATION. 185 

penses, whicli for tlie first period amounted 
to $12,900,570, liad declined in the corre- 
sponding period to $1,179,760. At last it 
had been demonstrated that the Navy De- 
partment could be conducted honestly, 
efficiently, and upon business principles. 
When this was done it was not difficult to 
induce congress — which for many years 
had shown itself unwilling to vote the 
necessary appropriations — to pro^dde the 
money necessary for the maintenance of the 
honor of the country by building a navy 
worthy of the name. 

Although the Secretary of War had few 
opportunities to make much of a show or 
even to display great executive ability, 
that department did all there was to do, 
and did it well. Early in his administra- 
tion the President set about the work of 
breaking up the system of favoritism which 
had so long made that department a nest 
of intrigue. The officers who, by the use 
of every kind of inHuence, had been getting 
assignments to soft places for twenty 
years, were sent to their regiments, in 
order that they might not entirely forget 



186 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

the profession wliich the goveriimeut had 
enabled them to acquire at West Point. 
Because of the growth of the AVestern 
Territories and of the success of the peace- 
ful policy so consistently carried out by 
Mr. Clevehmd and his administration, there 
was almost no employment during his 
term for the reo;uhar army. However, in 
spite of this fact, its discipline and condi- 
tion were constantly impi'oved, mainly for 
the reason that, like the othei' departments, 
it was conducted on business pi'inciples. 

The Department of Justice was con- 
ducted without noise or bluster and with 
great efficiency. During a considerable 
portion of the time covered by the Cleve- 
land administration the duties of the 
Attorney General ^vere done by his Solici- 
tor General, George A. Jenks, of Penn- 
sylvania, but w^hether the ^vork was 
directed by Mr. Garland or Mi*. Jenks it 
was well and faithfully done. The Presi- 
dent himself being a lawyer of careful 
training and recognized position, with a 
conscientious devotion to his profession, 
e^ave close attention to all questions of a 



THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATION. 187 

legal character. Congress had just enacted 
many important • laws miposiug additional 
work upon this department. As the result 
of this 39,361 criminal prosecutions were 
disposed of during the years 1885, 1886, 
and 1887, against 27,828 for the three full 
years of the preceding administration. 
All this additional business was transacted 
at an increased expense of a little more 
than a quarter of a million dollars for the 
whole period. The laws against violators 
vv^ere strictly enforced in every part of the 
country, and no serious scandal attached 
itself to a marshal or to a district attorney 
in any State or Territory. 

Durino: Mr. Cleveland's term a Chief 
Justice was chosen to succeed Moriison R. 
Waite. After careful consideration this 
great office was conferred upon Melville 
W. Fuller, one of the leaders of his profes- 
sion in the West, and the success with 
which he has administered an important 
trust has fully justified the confidence of 
the President. An Associate Justice was 
appointed in the person of L. Q. C. Lamar, 
Mr. Cleveland's Secretary of the Interior. 



188 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

He, too, has done his work with general 
acceptance to the country' and his profes- 
sion. One Circuit Judge and eleven Dis- 
trict Judges were also appointed, all of 
them men of excellent standins: in their 

o 

several localities. In fact, no President 
ever devoted more attention to the choice 
of judges and all other officials who had 
to do with the machinery of the law than 
did Mr. Cleveland. 

The Post-office has grown so rapidly 
of late years, and become such an im- 
mense establishment, that it demands the 
highest administrative talent that it may 
keep itself continually in touch with the 
development of the country. In 1883 
the letter j^ostage rate was reduced from 
three to two cents, and the weight limit 
increased from half an ounce to an ounce. 
During that and the following years 
marked reductions were made in the rates 
on second, class postage matter, and in the 
limit of w^eight for a very considerable 
portion of that embraced in the third 
class. But such was the unprecedented 
growth of the volume of business that in 



THE WORK OF ADMINT8TRA TIOI>'. 1 8 9 

spite of these concessions the receipts in- 
creased from $42,560,843.83 in 1885 to 
$52,672,735.30 in 1888, nearly 25 per cent. 
in three years. At the same time the ex- 
pense for carrying on this greatly aug- 
mented service only increased from $49,- 
782,619.09 in 1883^ to $56,468,315.20 in 
1888, or only about 11,4 per cent, more 
for transacting a business 25 per cent, 
greater. Each dollar in receipts cost the 
government $1.17 in 1885 and only $1.06 
in 1888. 

In spite of the unexamj)led growth of the 
service a decided savins: was eifected in the 
transportation of the mails. This was done 
by economy in star route, steamboat, and 
railway charges ; by the discontinuance of 
illegal allowances for apartment-car service ; 
by a readjustment of the pay of land-grant 
railroads, and in the reduced cost of mail 
equipment. While all this was done a 
decided improvement ^vas made in the 
number and speed of the fast mail routes. 
For the first time in the history of the de- 
partment parcels post contracts were con- 
cluded with Mexico and the West Indian 



190 A LIFE OF GROVEB CLEVELAND. 

and Soutli American countries, and the de- 
partment itself at Washington was con- 
ducted with the greatest efficiency and 
economy. Not a scandal or serious abuse 
was developed, while many antiquated 
ways of doing business were replaced by 
improved methods. The free delivery 
service was greatly enlarged and, under 
the careful management of William F. 
Vilas and Don M. Dickinson, its extension 
to the smaller towns was made a perma- 
nent policy. This has been followed up 
by their successors in office, thus giving 
many thousands of people in the United 
States the boon of a free delivery of their 
letters. The money order system was ex- 
tended to a large number of new offices, 
and improvements in the methods of man- 
aging this department went hand in hand 
with this extension. 

For nearly three yeai's of the adminis- 
tration the work was carried on by Mr. 
Vilas. He was succeeded early in 1888 
by Don M. Dickinson of Michigan, who 
proved himself in every way worthy to 
hold a place under such a chief and to 



THE WORK OF A DMINISTRA TION. 1 1 

succeed so efficient an officer as Mr. Vilas. 
No more efficient man has made his way 
into public life of recent years, or been 
tried more thoroughly in a difficult depart- 
ment, than Mr. Cleveland's second Post- 
master General. He was not only an 
excellent official, but proved himself in 
every way an able man, and has been 
recognized every \vhere as one of the firmest 
and most consistent friends of the man w^ho 
called him into his councils. 

For many years before the accession of 
Mr. Cleveland there had been a growing de- 
mand that the small area of public lands 
remaining as the property of the nation 
should be saved as homes for actual 
settlers. Almost no steps had been taken, 
however, to wrest fi*om the railroads vast 
tracts which, though granted, had not been 
earned. When the new administration 
came into office it found millions of acres 
tied up with claims made by railroads, 
and other millions illegally surrounded 
by fences for the purpose of furnishing 
pasture to the herds and flocks of cattle 
kings and ranchmen. The work of remov- 



192 A LIFE OF GEOVEB CLEVELAND. 

ing the fences from tlie public lands was 
taken up and prosecuted almost at the 
outset of the administration, and it was 
done Avitli such energy that at the end of 
its second year there was very little cause 
for complaint of the existence of such 
abuses. They had been removed by the 
firm and vigorous policy adopted by Mr. 
Cleveland and his Secretary of the 
Interior. 

But this was not all. The policy of de- 
claring forfeit lands granted to railroads but 
never earned was taken up with such energy 
that, before the close of the third fiscal year 
of the administration, there had been re- 
stored to the public domain and for the use 
of actual settlers the following amounts in 
acres : 

Lands in granted railroad limits - - 2,108,417.38 

Forfeited by acts of congress - - - 28,253,347.00 

Railroad indemnity lands - - - - 21,323,600.00 
Private land claims and withdrawn 

lands - - - 576,000.00 

Entries under the law, canceled for 

various reasons ----__. 27,460,608.74 
Invalid State selections (internal im- 
provements and swamp lands) - - 698,747,52 

Making the total number of acres 

restored to entry and settlement - 80,420,720.59 



THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATION. 193 

Besides this vast area restored for the 
homes of actual settlers, more than sixty -five 
million acres were recommended for res- 
toration or were in process of forfeiture at 
the close of the administration, makino; a 
grand total of nearly 146,000,000 acres, an 
area almost as large as that contained in 
all the New Eno;land and Middle States 
combined. 

This was in no way the result of accident. 
Among the earliest acts of the President, 
as already narrated, was the proclamation 
warning ranchmen to remove fences from 
the public lands. Even earlier in his 
career, so early, indeed, as 1882, the con- 
vention that nominated him for Governor 
declared in its platform : " We also arraign 
the Republican party for its wholesale gifts 
to railroad jobbers, thus robbing the mass 
of the people of their rightful inheritance, 
and we demand that so far as possible 
these lands shall be reclaimed and reserved 
for occupation by actual settlers." 

In his first annual message to congress 
the President reviewed briefly the origin 
of the public domain, and emphasized the 



194 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

fact, often lost sight of, that the concessions 
of land were made originally by the States, 
and that they were " encumbered with 
no condition except that they should be 
held and used ^for the benefit of the 
United States.'" 

He also insisted that the lands acquired 
by purchase with the public mone}^ all had 
attached to them the original trust "for 
the benefit of the United States." In his 
view, '^the policy of many homes rather 
than large estates w^as adopted by the gov- 
ernment " in the execution of this trust. 
He then declared that "it is not for the 
benefit of the United States that a large 
area of public land should be acquired, 
directly or through fraud, in the hands of a 
single individual. The nation's strength is 
in the people ; the nation's prosperity is in 
their prosperity ; the nation's glory is in 
the equality of her justice; the nation's 
perpetuity is in the patriotism of all her 
people. Hence, as far as practicable, the 
plan adopted in the disposal of the public 
lands should have in view the original pol- 
icy, which encouraged many purchasers of 



THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATION. 195 

these lands for homes and discouraged the 
massing of large areas." 

This policy was recurred to again and 
again in his annual messages ; in instruc- 
tions to the Secretary of the Interior and 
to the land offices ; and in his last annual 
message he observed with pride, that "it 
is gratifying to know that something has 
been done to redress the injuries to our 
people and check the perilous tendency of 
the reckless grants of the national domain," 
and insisted that the remainder of our 
aOTcultural lands should be husbanded 
with the greatest care, and recommended 
the speedy enactment of measures of legis- 
lation to confine the remaining lands to 
the uses of " actual husbandry and genuine 
homes." 

In none of the questions that came before 
him did the President show himself more 
deeply interested than in that of dealing 
with the Indian wards of \\\q^ government. 
He believed in fair and kind but firm treat- 
ment and in the use of the civilizing in- 
fluences of schools, missions, and farm ma- 
chinery. Thus believing, he gave careful 



196 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

attention to the question from tlie earliest 
days of his administration. The men 
chosen to carry out this policy were se- 
lected with care, and soon showed their 
fitness for the work in hand. This was 
demonstrated by a great increase in the 
acreage of land under cultivation by In- 
dians, and in the fact that many new tribes 
and bands were added to those already 
engaged in this most civilizing work. Fa- 
voritism was practically abolished in the 
appointment of agents, clerks, farmers, and 
physicians, and the practice of making pro- 
vision for the relatives of men already in 
the service was strictly forbidden. 

All this was done at a marked decrease 
in cost, even when efficiency is taken into 
consideration. The decrease is so marked 
as to show the care given to the Indian 
que^ion in every detail. For the three 
years\l,882, 1883, 1884, the entire cost of 
the Indian service was $19,519,613.06; the 
annual average for school expenses was 
$383,008.29, and during this same time the 
annual average number of pupils in the 
Indian schools, on the reservations, and in 



THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATION. 197 

the training schools was 4561. During tlie 
three years 1886, 1887, 1888, the total cost 
of the Indian service was $18,411,154.11, 
of which the annual averao;e for school 

CD 

expenses was $1,036,078.03, and the aver- 
age number of pupils in all the schools 
was 10,523. 

This was the natural result of a policy 
under which honesty and business prin- 
ciples were applied to the management of 
Indian affairs. This became so firmly fixed 
that it has been carried out, though with 
a considerable increase in cost. That the 
maintenance of the policy adopted during 
this period will finally do much to solve 
the problem which has heretofore pre- 
sented so many difficulties cannot be 
doubted. 

In each of his annual messages, begin- 
ning with the first, in December, 1885, and 
with the exception of the tarift'-reform mes- 
sage of 1887 — in which none of the detail 
work of the government was reviewed — 
the President expressed again and again 
his views upon the Indian question, and 
their publication as a chapter in a connected 



198 A LIFE OF OBOVER CLEVELAND. 

form in his writings is almost as tliorougli 
a presentation £>i his views as if it had 
been written in the form of an essay for 
the purpose of setting forth his ideas. 
When he found misapprehensions among 
certain elements concerning the policy of 
the department he wrote letters explaining 
itj and in this way showed not only his 
interest in the subject, but the knowledge 
he had gained of it. At every opportunity 
he took occasion to congratulate the coun- 
try upon the improvement in the condition 
of the Indian population, and in his closing 
message, in December, 1888, he declared 
that " the proofs multiply that the trans- 
forming change, so much to be desired, 
which shall substitute for barbarism educa- 
tion and civilizing sentiment, is in favorable 
progress." 

For many years the Department of Agri- 
culture had been one of the accepted jokes 
of the public service, but when Mr. Cleve- 
land became President he selected for 
Commissioner of Agriculture a man long 
accustomed to the study not only of farm- 
ing itself, but of the people who were en- 



THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATION. 199 

gaged in it. This gentleman, Norman J. 
Colman of Missouri, brought to the dis- 
charge of the duties of his office unusual 
fitness. He had been a practical farmer 
all his life, and in addition had for many 
years conducted one of the most successful 
weekly newspapers devoted to the farming 
interest. He was therefore at once able to 
take up the practical work. 

He began by establishing close relations 
between the Department of Agriculture 
and the State agricultural colleges and the 
experiment stations endowed by con- 
gress. He succeeded in this by calling 
a conference of himself and his staff 
with the leading men of these insti- 
tutions. At this meeting a policy was 
mapped out which had for its general pur- 
pose the pursuit of work on some system, 
the prevention of duplication, the exchange 
of the results of work, and the establishing 
of experiment stations in the different 
States and Territories. He began and 
carried out a careful investigation of adul- 
terations and imitations. He adopted vig- 
orous and successful measures to stamp out 



200 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

the contagious diseases of cattle, and con- 
ducted a series of experiments with sor- 
ghum, which demonstrated the ability of 
the country to increase greatly its produc- 
tion of raw sugar. 

CHAPTER XL 

THE WOEK OF ADMINISTEATION (cONCLUDEd) 

While the President kept himself in 
close and practical relation with the work 
of the departments, there were a gi'eat 
number of questions, to which he gave 
much time, by means of which he im- 
pressed himself strongly upon the country. 
One of the first to press for settlement was 
the confirmation of his appointments. In 
certain nominations the senate, led by 
George F. Edmunds, then, and for many 
years before, a senator from Vermont, un- 
dertook to assert the principles of the old 
Tenure of Office Act, which, as the Presi- 
dent said with force in his messag^e to the 
senate, had fallen into " innocuous desue- 
tude." 

This message was one of the most vig- 



THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATION. 201 

orous of his public utterances. In it he 
met the senate upon its own ground. He 
stated so succinctly the issue between the 
Executive and that body, and declared in 
such a decided way that he would not 
comply with its demand for the surrender of 
letters or documents of a private nature, in 
no sense official, that, after its receipt b}' 
the senate and the return of a formal an- 
swer, that body discovered that the senti- 
ment of the country was strongly with the 
President, and the contest ended in his 
complete success. No further concerted 
effort was made to hamper the President 
on the question of appointments. 

In the matter of pensions as affected by 
both general and pi'ivate acts, the Presi- 
dent took his own way. He insisted from 
the very beginning that the pension list 
should be made and kept " a roll of honor.'' 
AVith him assurance of merit on the part 
of the beneficiary and not the liberality 
of the government, which, because it was 
rich, could afford to be lavish, was the test ; 
so he vetoed private pension bills to the 
number of about two hundred and fifty, 



202 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

insisting that if the money of the govern- 
ment was to be paid out to the soldiers of 
our wars it shoukl be done under genei'al 
laws that would permit no favoritism and 
place the private soldier upon an equality 
with the officer, thus enabling a man with- 
out friends to command a pension as a right 
to himself and not as a favor from a gov- 
ernment official or a political party. 

He also vetoed the Dependent Pension 
bill because it made many of its beneficia- 
ries objects of charity, and while showing 
a feeling of gratitude to the soldiers of the 
Union and manifesting a desire to promote 
their interests, he tried at every turn to 
protect them from their enemies, and, if 
need be, from themselves. 

Nothing that he did has more thor- 
oughly justified itself than Mr. Cleveland's 
pension policy. No man in the United 
States, who is both sensible and honest, 
ever believed or asserted that he was, 
or is, the enemy of the soldier. His 
actions as well as his words attest the 
falsity of such a charge. But he saw that 
the pension system had grown to be a 



THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATION. 203 

great abuse, and recognized, what is now 
almost universally admitted, tliat the 
bounty of the government had been con- 
ferred upon men who did not deserve or 
need it, and that the demand for further 
pension legislation, more than a quarter of 
a century after the close of the war, was 
largely artificial, the result of systematic 
agitation and organization by pension agents 
and attorneys. 

He saw, too, that the whole system was 
put in peril by the magnitude of the abuses 
which were growing up about it. For 
this reason he insisted on making the pen- 
sion list ^'a roll of honor," upon which 
might be found the names of those men 
who actually had w^on such recognition 
from a grateful people. 

His course in the matter of civil-service 
reform does not need to be set forth at 
length. He came into office under most 
difficult conditions so fai' as this important 
problem was concerned. For a quarter of 
a century, the offices had been filled by 
the merciless application of the spoils sys- 
tem. No man not a member of the major- 



204 A LIFE OF GROVEB CLEVELAND. 

ity party had a chance to obtain any 
important employment in the public serv- 
ice. In 1882 the demand for the enact- 
ment of a civil service law had become so 
positive that a compromise measure, unsat- 
isfactory to the advocates of the principle, 
was extorted from an unwilling congress. 
This law had been in operation a little less 
than two years when Mr. Cleveland came 
into office. 

Mr. Cleveland found the civil service 
with less than fourteen thousand em- 
ployees resting under the protection of the 
new law, 90 per cent, of whom had proba- 
bly been appointed originally as a reward 
for political services, and had become part 
of the new system when the civil service 
law was enacted. When Mr. Cleveland 
left office, more than twenty-seven thousand 
persons were included within the provi- 
sions of the classified service. With 
the exception of those appointed to fill 
vacancies caused by death, resignation, re- 
duction of force, and one or two removals 
for cause, he kept about him in the Execu- 
tive Mansion the men he had found there. 



THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATION. 205 

The messengers who answered his calls 
and those of his secretary during the entire 
period of four years, the executive clerks, 
the personal correspondence clerk, and 
nearly all the men about him, with the ex- 
ceptions noted, had entered the service 
under his predecessor. 

He went on with this work so constantly 
and consistently that if history is honestly 
written it will be recorded that the merit 
system owes more to Grover Cleveland 
for giving it a fair trial by extending 
its operations into many different depart- 
ments, and by permitting many men un- 
used to public work to find opportuni- 
ties to do it, than to any other man or to 
any other influence. 

No act of Mr. Cleveland's during his ad- 
ministration was more popular than his 
marriage, on June 2, 1886, to Miss Frances 
Folsom of Buffalo. This introduced into 
social life a woman who, though young, 
never made a mistake in her dealings with 
her countrymen.i Beautiful in character as 
in person ; domestic in her tastes ; devoted 
to her husband, she has shown at every 



206 A LIFE OF GROVE II CLEVELAND. 

step of his career and her own the capabil- 
ities of American womanhood. Mr. Cleve- 
land's domestic life has been as happy as 
it could be, and the example he and his 
wife have set cannot be too highly com- 
mended. They have lived in a plain, 
simple manner, going about their own 
c(mcerns in their own way, as far as the 
public would permit, and neither has 
shown the least tendency to vanity or dis- 
play. 

During the years 1886 and 1887 the 
President traveled in eveiy part of the 
country. On September 30, 1887, he left 
Washington on a train of well appointed 
palace cars, furnished with all the comforts 
of travel, accompanied by his wife, his 
secretary, and a few political and personal 
friends. They traveled through the States 
of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and made 
their first stop in the city of Indianapolis, 
were they were greeted with the warmest 
manifestations of interest. The same 
scenes of enthusiasm and hospitality were 
witnessed in Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, 
St. Paul, Minneapolis, Omaha, Kansas City, 



THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATION. 207 

St. Louis, Memphis, Nashville, Chatta- 
nooga, Atlanta, ancl^Montgomeiy, the Presi- 
dent returniuo^ direct to his home from the 
last named point. All along the route 
chosen for this extensive journey the same 
interest was shown in the person, character, 
and position of the President. He was 
met everywhere by delegations, and when 
time permitted, the President generally 
made a speech, always aptly worded, as 
was his wont, and received all who came to 
see him, whether rich or poor, white or 
black. 

In few of these did he refer in any way 
to politics or public questions, but in 
Montgomery, Ala., he departed from this 
rule somewhat. His trip was then practi- 
cally over, and he had seen in the South 
everywhere the signs of a restored Union, 
and recognized even more emphatically 
than he had done during all his career tliat 
sectionalism was no longer a part of the 
life in that region. So he said : 

" Your fellow-countrymen appreciate the 
value of intimate and profitable business re- 
lations with you, and there need be no fear 



208 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

that they will permit them to be destroyed 
or endangered by designing demagogues. 
The wickedness of those partisans who seek 
to aid their ambitious schemes by engender- 
ing hate among a generous people is fast 
meeting exposure ; and yet there is and 
should be an insistence upon a strict adher- 
ence to the settlement which has been made 
of disputed questions, and upon the unre- 
served acceptance of such settlement. As 
against this, I believe no business considera- 
tions should prevail, and I firmly believe 
that there is American fairness enough 
abroad in the land to insure a proper and 
substantial recognition of the good faith 
which you have exhibited." 

The bearino^ of the President on this 
extended journey, the ease and dignity 
with which he met his countrymen, the 
interest he manifested in local develop- 
ment everywhere, the impressions that he 
brouo;ht back with him of a restored and 
united country, did much to promote the 
popular sentiment not only in behalf of 
unsectional politics but to increase his 
pei'sonal popularity. 

The President was also a conspicuous 
figure at the centennial of the adoption of 
the Constitution in Philadelphia, in Sep- 



THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATION 209 

tember, 1887, and while there made several 
appropriate speeches in a single day. He 
manifested mnch interest in the evidences 
of the industrial progress made by our 
people, and in all the varied elements that 
served to mark the difference between that 
time and the century before when the Con- 
stitution had been adopted by the conven- 
tion in session in that city. 

No President in all our history has used 
the veto power so freely as did Mr. Cleve- 
land. This was done not merely from any 
desire to use this Constitutional right, but 
to assert in the most effective way his 
belief in certain principles, to protect the 
Treasury from spoliation, and to do what 
he could to direct legislation in the proper 
channels. Mention has already been made 
of his pension vetoes. These asserted the 
supremacy in his own mind of his idea of 
what the pension list ought to be, and 
his purpose to protest, as he thought he 
ought, against a prevailing tendency, and, 
last and least, to prevent the misappropria- 
tion of government money. 

The same principles were applied in his 



210 A LIFE OF OBOVER CLEVELAND. 

veto of tlie bills appropriating money for 
the erection of public buildings. For 
many years tliei'e liad been an epidemic of 
this class of legislation, which had grown 
to such proportions that it was really a 
serious abuse. The people of nearly every 
large town, encouraged by the success of 
places only a little larger, pushed their 
claims for Federal buildings. It made 
little difference whether these were needed 
or not, if, by the combination of one set 
of members of congress with another, an 
ao^reement could be reached by which a 
union of all the votes could be had for 
the purpose of voting these appropriations. 
Mr.. Cleveland ruthlessly vetoed such legis- 
lation from the very beginning, signing 
only a few bills of this character during 
his whole term. In doing so, however, he 
always gave his reasons with the utmost 
fullness, going carefully into the history of 
the appropriation, the methods pursued 
to get it, examining the condition of the 
town, referring many times to the census 
reports to iind out its population, and ob- 
taining information from postmasters and 



THE WORK OF ADMimSTRATION. 211 

otlaer officials as to the real needs of the 
locality. Then a brief veto would be 
written, and in spite of the log-rolling 
system, which had been so successfully 
conducted, no public building bill was 
passed over his protest. 

He also used the veto power on bills of 
doubtful constitutionality. Thus, during 
his administration, a drought visited cer- 
tain portions of Texas, and a successful 
appeal was made to congress for the 
passage of a bill appropriating $10,000 
for seed. This he vetoed, and in his mes- 
sage laid down the epigrammatic prin- 
ciple that though " the people support the 
government, the government should not 
support the people." 

The last important act of his official 
career was his veto of the Direct 
Tax bill, a measure to refund to the 
States nearly $20,000,000 of what was 
known as the Direct Tax, levied and paid 
at the beginning of the Civil War. The 
passage of such a law had been agitated 
for many years, but was only successful in 
the closing days of the Fiftieth Congress. 



212 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND, 

Mr. Cleveland reviewed the case with 
great directness and ability, and this last 
official communication to congress is one 
of the most vigorous of those that he sent 
to it. 

He did all this extra work with his 
usual care. Every bill vetoed was ex- 
amined carefully by himself after he had 
obtained from the departments, and the 
friends of the measure itself, such informa- 
tion as he could get; then he would go 
carefully over every point of it, always 
working into the early morning hours in 
order to accomplish this self-imposed task. 
A President less conscientious would have 
permitted much of this legislation to go 
through and have thrown the respon- 
sibility upon congress. But this did not 
accord with his conception of the scope of 
his duties, so he persisted in his work, 
with the result that his protest, though 
unheeded perhaps at the time, and in spite 
of the fact that many of these offensive 
bills have been since passed into law, 
had the effect of directing attention to 
political abuses, not only in Federal, but 



THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATtON, 213 

in State legislation. All this contributed 
to arouse tlie moral sentiment of the 
country, which in the end is sure to assert 
itself. 

Mr. Cleveland made speeches on many 
questions during his term of office, more, 
perhaps, than all his predecessors together. 
They were on all manner of questions, and 
related to almost eveiy element in our 
population. Everyone was short, pointed, 
and bright, and each showed the highest 
regard for the dignity of his office, a close 
and intimate knowledge of the question 
discussed, a willingness to aid every good 
cause, and all were thoroughly democratic in 
tone and matter. He thereby put him- 
self in close relations with the people, 
never shirking any physical exertion 
necessary to go through a reception, or to 
do on such occasions what was deemed 
best by his friends and countrymen. Per- 
haps no man ever submitted to such an 
ordeal with a better grace. 



214 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

CHAPTER XII. 

THE TAEIFF-KEFOEM MESSAGE. 

The most important policy announced 
and advocated by Mr. Cleveland during 
his term as President was that of tariff 
reform. The discussion of the message in 
which this was enunciated and emphasized 
has been so long continued and has become 
so universal that it is scarcely necessary to 
refer to it at length. 

In his first message in 1885 he made a 
brief reference to the condition of our 
revenue laws, and insisted, with em- 
phasis, that a revision ought to be effected ; 
that the surplus then being heaped up in 
the Treasury was a serious danger. He 
believed then that it could only be met 
by a proper revision of the laws, and so 
asserted. It was, however, merely a para- 
graph in a message, and, being his first 
official reference to the question, it did not 
attract the attention that was afterward 
given it, when he put forth his ideas in a 
much more emphatic way. 



THE TARIFF-REFORM MESS A OE. 215 

In 1886 he devoted still more attention 
to this questioD, giving to it a greater pro- 
portion of his annual review of the con- 
di'ion of the government than had been 
done for many years before. He never 
wrote anything stronger or more perti- 
nent, or anything that better show^ed his 
deep knowledge of the question and his 
thorough conception of the dangers that 
were involved in the perpetuation of war 
taxes in time of peace. But even this did 
not attract wide attention to the question. 

Duiing the spring and summer of 1887 
the condition of the Treasury, by reason of 
the rapid inci'ease of the surplus, became a 
menace to the prosperity and the financial 
stability of the country. With the excep- 
tion of his Secretary of the Treasury no 
man knew it so well as the President. 
The duty of providing some way of escape 
from the difficulties which surrounded the 
country w^as incumbent upon them. They 
did this work, and in doing it the Presi- 
dent, in daily dread of commercial disaster, 
was led to consider, w^ith more care than 
ever before, the ways and means necessary 



210 A LIFJiJ OF GUOVElt C'LKVELAND. 

for removing tlie cause of such a disturbance. 
As a result he saw no other way than to 
reduce the exorbitant and unnecessary 
taxes the imposition of which had brought 
about this condition of financial plethora. 

His annual message of 1887, devoted 
entirely to the I'e venue system of the 
country, naturally followed. For the first 
time since the war public attention was 
attracted to financial questions with a 
directness that could not be challenged. 
The knowledge of the question shown in 
the message, the courage tliat prompted it, 
the patriotism that stood forth in every 
line — all these appealed in a surprising way 
to the conscience as well as to the pockets 
of the people. . At once there came a 
realizing sense of the dangers with which 
we were threatened, and in spite of the 
fact that at the succeeding election the 
majority of the electoral votes was not cast 
for the man who had written this message 
and emphasized this issue, the sentiment of 
the country was shown by the fact that a 
decided popular majority *was cast in its 
favor. 



THE TARIFF-REFORM MESS A GE. 217 

It would be difficult to overestimate the 
eii'ect of this message. For one thing it 
took politics out of the ruts into which it 
had fallen, and gave the country something 
real, over which its voters might divide. 
It showed that so far as Mr. Cleveland was 
concerned, the war, glorious memory though 
it was, should not be permitted to fasten 
upon the country permanently a system of 
taxation which had been devised merely 
for the purpose of meeting an imperious 
and temporary necessity. Then, too, it 
gave fiscal questions a different standing. 
Complaint was no longer made that a 
speech on the tariff was dull, or that an ex- 
position on the financial condition of the 
country was of necessity stupid. In spite 
of the result of the election in 1888, and 
whatever may be the result of that of 1892 
or any other that may follow, the good 
effects of the message of 1887 cannot be 
overestimated. 

Probably no document of the same 
length ever- had so wide a reading in the 
same space of time as this message. 
It did not say anything new, but the man 



218 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

who wrote it had the courage to see the 
peril into which the country had been 
drawn by adherence to a dangerous policy, 
and, seeing this, he was willing to stake his 
political fortunes upon the correction of 
these wrongs. 

It would, however, be a mistake to look 
upon this message as nothing more than a 
discussion of the tariff question. It was 
truly this, and as such it was most intelli- 
gent and effective ; but its influence upon 
political discussion bids fair to be so far- 
reaching that, in the end, it will insure not 
only a change from a bad to a sound and 
sensible flscal system, but the practical re- 
generation of our politics. 

When the movement resulting from it is 
carried to its logical conclusions, it means 
that selfishness shall not add the power of 
government to the force that it already 
possesses. That message reorganized and 
rejuvenated one political party. In the 
course of time, it will have the same effect 
on all parties, however great or small they 
may be, and on all sections or movements 
that may be organized for the next quarter 



THE TARIFF-REFORM MB 88 A GE. 219 

of a century. INOuiinally, the mau who 
wrote it and brought this moral force into 
politics was defeated for re-election, but in 
reality he was the most successful public 
man known to our history. The seeming 
defeat of that day was not a defeat at all ; 
it was a victory for moral principles in 
politics and for a man who was ready to do 
whatever lay in his power for those princi- 
ples. It put new life into political discus- 
sion, and took the country out and far 
away from the old and sectional questions 
that should have been dropped long before, 
and brought to the front new problems of 
every kind. 

Mr. Cleveland has sometimes been criti- 
cised for having delayed this message. But 
no thin o; is clearer now than that the mes- 
sage was timely, because it was necessary, 
and that this necessity did not make itself 
absolutely apparent until the period men- 
tioned. The condition of things was bad 
in 1885 and 1886, but there was little 
then to indicate that the evils from 
which the country was suifering were the 
result of one serious abuse. Then, too, 



220 A LIFE OF O ROVER CLEVELAND. 

there were many other things to do besides 
reforming the tariff. The principles of one 
great party had been excluded from consid- 
eration for twenty-iive years. It was neces- 
sary to reassert these before the country 
could be aroused upon a great fiscal ques- 
tion, to which, however great or important 
it may be, it is always difficult to attract 
universal attention. The President was 
engaged during all these years in choosing 
men who should assert these principles. 
He had very little time to study this ques- 
tion in all its bearings. That he had an 
intelligent appreciation of it was shown 
from the days of the Newark speecli in 
1884. 

His personal relations to the question 
were, however, well illustrated by an in- 
cident early in his career as President. 
During these early days he talked with 
Speaker (now Senator) John G. Carlisle of 
Kentucky, on this issue. It was only 
natural that such a man as Mr. Carlisle, 
who had given so much attention to the 
question of taxation, should desire to 
impress his views strongly upon the Presi- 



THE TARIFF-REFORM MESSAGE. 221 

dent. In reply tlie latter said, in substance, 
that he had had little opportunity to give 
the matter careful study, but that his views 
were in accord with the position his party 
had assumed on the question of revenues. 
He did not believe in using the power of 
the government to help individuals or 
interests, but averred that he had never 
had a chance to give it the thought it 
ought to have or that he intended to give it. 
As the administration went on, his at- 
tention was attracted to it, so that in 1887 
he was able to make the study necessary 
to write the historic message of that year. 
He no doubt felt that in addition to his 
own desire on this matter, a position 
reached after long consideration, he was 
almost driven to it by public necessity. 
Then came that wonderful document, which, 
slowly elaborated in his own mind, so far 
as the details were concerned, was not 
given to the public until after consultation 
with the men entitled to know about it. 
From that time forward no])ody had any 
reason to complain that Grover Cleveland 
(lid not know some thin j^ about the tariff 



222 A LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 

question, and that he was not interested 
in it. 

Apropos of this, the result of another 
interview with Mr. Carlisle may properly 
be narrated. Just before the meeting of 
congress in December, 1888, after the elec- 
tion, Mr. Cleveland sent for the Speaker of 
the House to consult with him about the 
tariif portion of his message. Before be- 
ginning the conversation, as has been nar- 
rated by the ex-Speaker himself, the Presi- 
dent said : 

" I have asked you to call and see me, Mr. 
Speaker, in order that I may get your views 
about that portion of my message which 
deals with the tariff question. You know 
that I have always been willing and anxious 
to consult the wishes- of the leaders of m}^ 
j)arty oi} every public question ; that I have 
tried to show that deference to their wishes 
that their position demanded, and so far as 
it was consonant with the interests of the 
country, but I want to tell you now that if 
every other man in the country abandons 
this issue 1 shall stick to it." 

Certainly nobody could complain that 
progress in knowledge between the time of 
these two interviews had not been rapid. 



THE TARIFF-REFORM MESSAGE. 223 

It has been asserted many times that 
Mr. Cleveland was defeated because of the 
question of 1887, and that he deliberately 
threw away the Presidency for this idea, 
when, if he had enunciated the message 
the year before, or left it until a year 
later, he might have been re-elected. 
That the message of 1887 enabled his op- 
ponents to raise a large corruption fund is, 
no doubt, true; but if that message had 
not been sent to congress — if the countiy 
had been permitted to drift, pei-haps the 
opposing party could not have raised so 
much money. But it could have raised 
enough for its purposes if an election 
was to be won by corrupt methods. The 
message of 1886 was positive enough on this 
question, and would have enabled the oppos- 
ing party to raise, if not so much, at least 
enough to bring about the apparently in- 
auspicious result that followed. 

Whatever effect it may have had upon 
his personal fortunes, nothing in the his- 
tory of the country has had such a good 
effect upon a political party as did this 
message upon that of which Mr. Cleveland 



224 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

was and lias been for many years the 
leader; so that it would have made very 
little difference whether the party had gone 
out of power in four years or in eight, if it 
had no principles at the end of either or in 
the interim. Mr. Cleveland gave it these, 
or rather from his lofty position he reas- 
serted them with such emphasis that 
nothing can now stop the progress of the 
ideas that he then enunciated until they 
shall have been successful. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

CANVASS OF 1888 AND RETIREMENT. 

Mr. Cleveland was renominated by the 
convention of his party at St. Louis in 
June, 1888, without a dissenting vote. He 
w^ould not permit any of the Federal 
officeholders to take part either in the pre- 
liminary proceedings or in those of the con- 
vention itself. Every State in the Union 
instructed its delegates to vote for him. 

The campaign which resulted from this 
was a bitter and unrelenting one on the 
part of the Republicans. They had known 



CAXVASS OF 1888 AXD BETIREMENT. 225 

for four years wliat it was to be iu tlie 
minority. They liacl also felt what it was 
to have a President of the United States 
who represented the reverse of everything 
that they themselves had emphasized dur- 
ing the latter stages of the history of their 
party. So they attempted to make use of 
the tariff-reform message of the previous 
year to raise the usual scare about the re- 
duction of wages of workingmen. In this 
they had little success, but as the canvass 
progressed it became apparent that there 
was not enough time to reach the farming 
population of the country and to instruct 
them fully in the meaning of tariff reform. 
The desperation of Republican partisans 
and the interests of certain classes of manu- 
facturers enabled the managers to raise 
large sums of money, ^vhich were used cor- 
ruptly and with much effect in several of 
the close States. In this way the vote of 
Indiana was carried, and in the same way 
the State of New York gave its electoral 
vote to Mr. Harrison by a small majority. 
Probably at no time in our history has 
there been such a carnival of corruption as 



226 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

was seen at that time. The success 
achieved was, however, comparatively small 
so far as public sentiment was concerned, 
as the party successful in the elec- 
toral college was unable to command a 
majority of the votes of the United States. 
While Mr. Harrison carried tw^enty States 
with 233 electoral votes and Mr. Cleveland 
eighteen States with 168 electoral votes, 
Mr. Cleveland received 5,538,233 votes, 
while Mr. Harrison received 5,440,216. 

Mr. Cleveland did not indulge in any 
wailing or repining over the result of the 
election. Personally it Avas no disappoint- 
ment. He had had a thorough trial of the 
labor and difficulties attending his high 
office. He felt, as perhaps no man in re- 
cent times has felt, the gigantic responsi- 
bilities of the office. He did not change 
his method of transacting public business. 
He gave the same careful attention to de 
tails and still showed the same positiveness 
which he exhibited from the beo-innino; of 
his public career. He vetoed bills that did 
not conform to his standard, and in many 
respects did some of the best work of his 



CANVASS OF 1888 AND RETIREMENT. 227 

entire administration during . the four 
months intervening between the election 
and the inauo-uration of his successor. 

In the mean time he began to make 
preparations for a return to the practice of 
his profession, and made arrangements to 
enter into partnership with Bangs, Stetson, 
Tracy & MacVeagh in New York. For 
almost the first time in our recent history, 
the defeat of a candidate for President did 
not have the effect of directing public 
attention away from him and toward his 
successor. In fact, more than ever the pub- 
lic heart seemed to turn to him, and he 
was probably more popular on the day after 
his defeat and in spite of it than he was the 
day that he was renominated by acclama- 
tion in the National Convention of his own 
party. 

Immediately after the inauguration of his 
successor, Mr. Cleveland came to New York, 
and, after remaining for a little time at 
his hotel in order to make the necessary 
preparations, settled down at No. 816 
Madison Avenue. From the beginning 
the greatest interest was manifested in his 



228 A LIFE OF GBOVER CLEVELAND. 

movements. He commanded as much 
attention as lie had when President, and it 
was soon to be demonstrated that on cere- 
monial occasions, when both were partici- 
pants, he was shown more respect than his 
successful rival for President of the United 
States. He was received into fellowship 
by the members of his profession in New 
York, with many of whom he had come 
into contact during the days of his practice 
in Buffalo and in the State courts. With 
many others he had been thrown into rela- 
tions during the six busy years of high 
political office. He had challenged the 
highest respect from these men, and it was 
only natural that the leaders of the bar of 
New York should feel it incumbent upon 
them to welcome to his new residence the 
man who had brought so much honor to 
them and to their calling. 

He declined nearly all invitations from 
political organizations, especially from 
those non-partisan in their character. He 
no doubt saw clearly that if he permitted 
himself to receive attentions from one 
organization, he would tind it impossible 



GANVA88 OF \^m AND RETIREMENT. 229 

to draw the line when others might seek to 
render him the same honor. So he ac- 
cepted only a single invitation, and made 
but one speech in response to the welcome 
extended to him. It was especially proper 
that this should be given him by a club 
or organization representing his own party. 
So on the 27th of April, after his re- 
moval to New York, he made a speech 
before the Democratic Club of the city of 
New York, in which he reviewed briefly 
the principles upon which he had con- 
ducted himself during his political caree]', 
then temporarily closed. He asserted that 
he had been honored by his party far be- 
yond his deserts, and declared that no man 
could deserve its highest honors. But he 
said : " After six years of public service, 1 
return to you, my party friends. Six years 
have I stood as your representative in the 
State and nation, and now I return again 
to the ranks, more convinced than ever 
that the success of true Democracy is the 
cause of the people — their safeguard and 
their hope." He also declared that he 
came without excuses or apologies, and with 



230 .4 LIFBjyjF Q ROVER CLEVELAND. 

no conviction of disloyalty. He reviewed 
the work done by liis party, as usual 
taking for himself only a modest share. 
He insisted that as the party had rehabili- 
tated itself as a party of principles that it 
should continue its work in the same way, 
and renew its fealty to the Constitution 
and to the interests of the people. 

In this speech he made one of the strong- 
est declarations of his whole life, expres- 
sive of the exalted idea that he had of 
party usefulness and of the necessity of 
a continual devotion to the public interests. 
He said: "We know that we have es- 
poused the cause of right and justice. 
We know that we have not permitted 
duty to country to wait upon expediency. 
We know that we have not trafficked our 
principles for success. We know that we 
have not deceived the people with false 
promises and pretenses; and we know 
that we have not corrupted or betrayed 
the poor with the money of the rich." 

This sentence has been repeated again 
and again. It has been made the text of 
great political organizations working in- 



CANVASS OF 1888 AND R^TtkEMENT. 231 

side the Democratic party and devoted to 
its ideas and purposes. To it Mr. Cleve- 
land owes much of the new position that 
came to him in his own party after he left 
the Presidency. As usual, he admonished 
his hearers to remain steadfast to the 
Democratic faith and to the cause of the 
country, and insisted that if they were true 
and loyal to these, " the day of triumph 
would surely and quickly come, and the 
victory be nobly and fairly won through 
the invincible spirit of true Democracy." 

His first appearance on a popular occasion 
after his retirement from the Presidency was 
at the Washino;ton inau2:uration Centennial 
in New York on April 30 of the same year. 
Few pageants more magnihcent have been 
seen in this country than those that occu- 
pied the attention of the people of that 
great city, and of their guests, during the 
three days of the Centennial celebrating 
Washington's inauguration. 

But they were more than this, as they 
showed how a man who had done unselfish 
and patriotic service could be received and 
appreciated by his countrymen. Where- 



232 A LIFE- OF GROVEB CLEVELAND, 

ever he appeared he was received with the 
liveliest manifestations of delight and 
enthusiasm ; and when he responded to a 
toast at the banquet which concluded the 
ceremonies there was no longer any doubt 
about his position in the hearts of his 
countrymen. 

He made only a few speeches during 
the summer, which he devoted to getting 
as much rest as possible. After the long 
period of hard work this was most grate- 
ful. But on December 12, 1889, he made 
what it is fair to call the greatest speech of 
his life up to and including that time. 
This was delivered in Boston before the 
Merchants' Association of that city — a 
body without partisan leanings or affilia 
tions. He chose for his subject " Political 
Selfishness and its Antidotes," and in it he 
took occasion to discuss on the most ele- 
vated plane all the questions of the day 
then pressing for settlement. He empha- 
sized at considerable length the responsi- 
bility of business men to the country, and 
reminded them that perhaps the older mer- 
chants, their predecessors in the commercial 



CANVASS OF 1888 ANI) RETIREMENT. L^33 

organizations of Boston, had not been led 
to depend upon the bounty oi- the liber- 
ality of the government for the favor 
which they deemed it but right and proper 
they should win for themselves. He re- 
ferred briefly to fiscal questions, and in- 
sisted that the revenues of the country 
should be levied and collected only because 
the money resulting therefrom was needed 
to defray the public expenses. 

He dwelt with much plainness upon the 
political corruption of the time, and re- 
probated with severity the purchase of 
votes by political managers or parties, as 
well as their sale by the individual voter. 
As a natural result from this, he advocated 
with enthusiasm the enactment of laws 
looking to a secret ballot, and it is due 
no doubt quite as much to his honest and 
open advocacy of this idea as to the 
popular conception of the magnitude of 
the evils involved that nearly two-thirds of 
the States of the American Union have 
since that time passed laws looking to a 
reform of the ballot. In advocating this 
idea, he declared : '' There are no leaders in 



234 A LIFE OF QBOVER CLEVELAND. 

this cause. Tliose who seem to lead the 
movement are but swept to the front by 
the surging force of patriotic sentiment. 
It rises far above partisanship, and only the 
heedless, the sordid, and the depraved re- 
fuse to Join in the crusade." He insisted, 
too, that this refoi'm was " predicated upon 
the cool deliberation of political selfishness 
in its endeavor to prostitute our suffrage 
to the purposes of private gain." As the 
advocacy of this had the natui-al effect al- 
ready noted of arousing public sentiment 
to the magnitude of the evil with which it 
had to deal, so in the same speech he de- 
clared auew his devotion to the cause of 
civil service reform, and went so far as to 
say that "it is to-day our greatest safe- 
guard against the complete and disgrace- 
ful degradation of our public service." 

In spite of the fact that the speaker was 
so well known throughout the country, and 
so popular with every element of his 
fellow-citizens, this speech had almost an 
electrical effect. It showed the country 
that it had to deal with no ordinary man, 
and that it noade but little difference 



CANVASS OF 1888 AN J) RETIREMENT- 235 

whether he was President of the United 
States or in private life. In the latter he 
felt the responsibility of citizenship as in 
the former he bad felt the responsibility 
of an official. This speech showed, too, a 
great advance in many respects over any 
previously made. 

It was the longest political speech of 
his entire careei* up to that time, and yet 
it was brief enough to find universal publi- 
cation, and to be read at every fireside in 
the land. If he had not occupied a unique 
position among his countrymen, this 
speech of itself would have given it to 
him, and I think I hazard nothing in as- 
serting that, more than anything else, it cre- 
ated the public sentiment that demanded 
his renomination, a demand which from 
that time became resistless. It mattered 
little thereafter what political managers 
might do. It mattered little \vhat plans the 
manipulators of political caucuses might 
attempt to carry out. The sentiment of 
the American people was behind Grover 
Cleveland, and it predetermined the action 
of his party. From that time forward he 



236 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

made many speeches, and it was soon 
plain that here was a man who w^as not con- 
fined to a single idea, but one whose lofty 
ideas were not expressed merely for sel- 
fish purposes, and who could see beyond 
primaries and elections. 

In November, 1890, he made a notable 
speech at the banquet given in Columbus, 
O., to Allen G. Thurman, on his seventy- 
seventh birthday. This was indeed the 
first partisan speech he made since the wel- 
come that had been extended to him by 
the Democratic Club. He followed this 
up by another party speech, or rather 
one reviewing the tariff agitation, de- 
livered before the Reform Club of New 
York, during Christmas week of 1890. 
So, too, he went to Philadelphia and made 
a speech on Jackson day, January 8, 1891. 

It is not my purpose, however, to review 
in detail the various speeches that Mr. 
Cleveland has made. Those carefully pre- 
pared, from March 4, 1889, to his nomi- 
nation for the thii'd time by his party on 
June 23, 1892, amount to about forty. 
Many were delivered before political 



CANVASS OF 1888 AND HUTIEEMEJST. 237 

organizations of one kind and another. 
He showed the greatest ^villingness to do 
whatever lay in his power to promote 
every good object. By this time he had 
become known as the most successful of 
after-dinner speakers, and the demands 
made upon his time were greater perhaps 
than upon any of his contemporaries. 

During the campaign of 1891 he made four 
political speeches, two in his own city of 
New York, one in Brooklyn, and one in 
Boston, advocating the re-election of Wil- 
liam E. Russell as Governor of Massachu- 
setts. But a partisan speech of Mr. Cleve- 
land's is not so different from his usual ad- 
dresses as is the case with most men. He 
does not take merely a partisan view of po- 
litical questions, so that he rises to the same 
lofty plane when he is addressing himself to 
a gathering of his own political friends as 
he does when he is speaking to an audience 
made up of all the elements of his country- 
men. 

Perhaps his most notable speech during 
the past year was that delivered before the 
students of the University of Michigan at 



238 A LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 

Adh Harbor on Washington's Birthday, 
February 22, of the present year. He took 
for his topic ^'Sentiment in our National 
Life," and treated it with such cogency 
and from such a lofty point of view, that 
he really gave to a subject long since 
hackneyed a vigor and an interest that are 
rare. There are passages in it that w^ould 
make the fortune of even the greatest 
of our public speakers. After reviewing 
the elements that enter into American 
sentiment, and insisting that they should 
be deeply imbedded in the minds and 
hearts of his countrymen, and after insist- 
ing, too, that we cannot outgrow depend- 
ence upon sentiment, nor reach a stage of 
our national development when it will be 
less important than now, he emphasized 
his position in these notable utterances : 

" I beg you, therefore, to take with yoti 
when you go forth to assume the obligations 
of American citizenship, as one of the best 
gifts of your Alma Mater, a strong and 
abiding faith in the value and potency of a 
good conscience and a pure heart. Nevtr 
yield one iota to those who teach that these 
are weak and childish things, not needed 
in the struggle of manhood with the stern 



CANVASS OF 1888 AND BETIREMENT. 280 

realities of life. Interest yourself in public 
affairs as a duty of citizenship, but do not 
surrender your faith to those who discredit 
and debase politics by scoffing at sentiment 
and principle, and whose political activity 
consists in attempts to gain popular support 
by cunning devices and shrewd manipula- 
tion. 

"You will find plenty of these who will 
smile at your profession of faith, and tell 
you that truth and virtue and honesty and 
goodness were well enough in the old days 
when Washington lived, but are not suited 
to the present size and development of our 
country and the progress we have made in the 
art of political management. Be steadfast. 
The strong and sturdy oak still needs the 
support of its native earth, and, as it grows 
in size and spreading branches, its roots 
must strike deeper in the soil which warmed 
and fed its first tender sprout. You will be 
told that the people have no longer any 
desire for the things you profess. Be not 
deceived. The people are not dead, but 
sleeping. They will awaken in good time, 
and scourge the money-changers from their 
sacred temple. 

" You may be chosen to public office. Do 
not shrink from it, for holding office is also 
a duty of citizenship. But do not leave 
your faith behind you. Every public office, 
small or great, is held in trust for your fel- 
low-citizens. They differ in importance, in 
responsibility, and in the labor they impose ; 
but the duties of none of them can be well 



240 A LIFE OF GBOVER GLEVELAJSD. 

performed if the mentorship of a good con- 
science and pure lieart be discarded. Of 
coiM-se other equipment is necessary, but 
without tliis mentorship all else is insuffi- 
cient. In times of gravest responsibility it 
will solve your difficulties ; in the most try- 
ing hour it will lead you out of perplexities, 
and it wall, at all times, deliver you from 
temptation." 

Such a declaration rings out like a 
clarion, and reduces the wonder sometimes 
expressed that this man has gained such 
a hold upon the affection of his people. 
Perhaps nothing could explain it better 
than these few crisj^ sentences. They con- 
stitute a confession of political faith that 
any man might well be proud to make, 
and it is evident that his countrymen 
looked upon them and like utterances as 
merely the logical results of a strong 
character, which made him notable in the 
history of his time. 

But it was not merely in the making of 
speeches that Mr. Cleveland appeared be- 
fore the public from time to time. Per- 
haps no man in our recent history has had 
such an opportunity to study the senti- 
ment of the American people as Mr. Cleve- 



CANVASS OF 1888 A^■B RETIRE ME I^ *! 

land had after his retire r. in the 

Presidency. Day after d week 

after week, letters poured n him 

from every quarter. There -^ 

a county in the nation in whici' 
recoo^nizino^ the loftiness of '>^ 

character, ' and perhaps the ne< ei - > 
advice on a public question, has noi 
written to tell him perhaps of some polit- 
ical vagary ; to give warning of some 
demagogue w^hose head had just appeared 
above the surface; or to tell him of some 
new figure, a man of character, conscience, 
and ability who was beginning to make 
himself felt in a given neighborhood. 
The number of these answered wdth his 
own hand in those busy days was un- 
precedented. Some have been printed, 
though not one by himself. He kept no 
copies of them, and gave almost no heed 
to what he had said in them. And yet 
he seldom repeated himself when writing 
again upon the same general question. 
Many w^ere written to organizations of one 
kind or another, political clubs, church socia- 
bles, or meetings to agitate some reform. 



i^42 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

Perhaps the most notable letter written 
during this period Avas that bearing date 
February 10, 1891, to the meeting called 
by the Reform Club to express the opposi- 
tion of the business men of New York to 
the tree coinage of silver. Mr. Cleveland's 
views were well known. There was no 
reason why he should be invited to write 
such a letter, or why, being invited, he 
should accept. Nobody had a right to 
assume that he had changed or modified 
his opinions on the subject. But he was 
not accustomed to dodge and so he 
wrote a letter of about one hundred and 
sixty words, that has had perhaps a 
greater effect upon the discussion of 
financial questions than any document of 
a like length ever prepared or published. 
Justly assuming that nobody had a right 
to criticise his attitude on the question, he 
said: 

*' I have this afternoon received your note 
inviting me to attend to-morrow evening 
the meeting called for the purpose of voic- 
ing the opposition of the business men of 
our city to 'the free coinage of silver in the 
United States.' 



CAMVASS OF 1888 AWJ) RETIREMENT. 24S 

" I shall not be able to attend and address 
the meeting as you request, but I am glad 
that the business interests of New York are 
at last to be lieard on this subject. It surely 
cannot be necessary for me to make a formal 
expression of my agreement with those who 
believe that the greatest peril would be in- 
vited by the adoxDtion of the sclieme em- 
braced in the measure now pending in con- 
gress for the unlimited coinage of silver at 
our mints. 

'' If we have developed an unexpected ca- 
pacity for the assimilation of a largely in- 
creased volume of this currency, and even if 
we have demonstrated the usefulness of 
such an increase, these conditions fall far 
short of insuring us against disaster, if, in 
the present situation, we enter upon the 
dangerous and reckless experiment of free, 
unlimited, and independent silver coinage." 

There can be no doubt that this letter 
changed the course of public sentiment, and 
that it will scarcely fail to change the 
course of history itself. The service 
thereby rendered cannot be computed. 
And yet it could not have been written 
with any intention to mold public senti- 
ment in his fa vol*. It was not needed for 
that, perhaps, any more than the tariff-re- 
form message of 1887 was needed for the 



244 A LIFS! OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

purpose of securing a renomination. But 
it was written, as was the message, be- 
cause lie believed that he was right, and 
that, being right, he should say so. 

During the first summer after 'the close 
of his administration Mr. Cleveland spent 
a considerable portion of his time in Massa- 
chusetts on the shores of Buzzard's Bay. 
He was attracted by the surroundings. 
He liked the comparative retirement it 
gave him, and enjoyed the amusements it 
furnished. So, in 1890, he bought a place 
of nearly a hundred acres near the head of 
Buzzard's Bay and remodeled the house to 
make for himself a summer home. This is 
the only house he owns, and he spends his 
summers there in as much retirement as 
the curiosity of his countrymen and the 
visits of his friends permit him to com- 
mand. There he is able to indulge his 
domestic tastes, and to live a quiet, simple 
life with his family. There he would 
have been more content to spend his 
leisure days than to be drawn again into 
the arena of politics. But if fate decides 
otherwise, and he finds that he must again 



CAN'VASS OF 1888 ANB RETIREMENT. 245 

become a resident of tlie Executive Man- 
sion, lie Avill accept tliat verdict with as 
much composure as he would any other 
call to work or duty. 

On July 25, 1891, after he had become 
fairly settled in his home at Gray Gables, a 
short distance from the town of Buzzard's 
Bay and from the Cape Cod branch of the 
Old Colony Railroad, the citizens of Barn- 
stable County gave a reception, at which 
he was formally inducted into a summer 
citizenship of Massachusetts. No occasion 
like this has perhaps ever been seen before, 
and it is doubtful if the conditions will 
ever be such as to make its repetition 
possible. From every quarter of Massa- 
chusetts men, women, and children came 
to take part in the proceedings held in the 
town of Sandwich. Men of all parties 
and no party united, and it seemed that 
each vied with the other to be more enthu- 
siastic than his neighbor. 

Mr. Cleveland's relations to the Demo- 
cratic nomination for the Presidency in 
1892 are well known. At no time in his 
career has he ever sought an office, and he 



246 A LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 

certainly did not do so after his retirement 
from the Presidency. No man felt more 
keenly than he the responsibilities of that 
high place. He had no personal desire to 
be nominated again, and it was only his 
willingness to do a patriotic service when 
he was called upon that induced him to 
accept a third nomination. 

The sentiment in his party, the coun- 
try over, was overwhelming in demand- 
ing that he should again make the race. 
This manifested itself between the day 
of his defeat and that of the inaugura- 
tion of his successor. It grew stronger day 
by day and year by year. At first many, 
both friendly and opposed, thought that 
there would soon come a change in the 
situation, but the one change that came 
was a strengthened and aroused demand 
that he should be chosen as the leader of 
his party. Finally, it was as evident at 
the beginning of the present year, as any 
future event could be, and especially after 
the delivery of the Ann Arbor address, on 
the 2 2d of February, that his party would 
demand his nomination at the hands of the 



GENERAL ESTIMATE OF GHARAGTER. 24V 

members of its convention and an accept- 
ance from him. As has ah'eady been said, 
he did nothing to promote it. He organ- 
ized no machine, he had no literary bureau, 
while in many of the States the leading 
politicians and managers were arrayed 
against him ; but party sentiment was so 
strong that the convention nominated him 
on the first ballot by more than the neces- 
saiy two-thirds vote. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

A GEKEEAL ESTIMATE OF CHAKACTEE. 

I HAVE thus endeavored fairly to set 
forth the main features of Grover Cleve- 
land's career. I have not thought it either 
fitting or necessary, in the brief space at 
my command, to go into all the details of 
the minor events of his life. It has seemed 
to me necessary, for the purposes of this 
study, to set forth as fully as possible 
those important things which together con- 
stitute what may be termed his public 
career. It is nothing but the story of a 
man who has won his way from humble 



248 A LIFE OF GROVEU CLEVELAND. 

beginnings with honest, self-respecting 
industrious people, to the highest honors, 

Tlie achievements of such a man con 
stitute in and of themselves his character 
sketch. If we find that he has been indus 
trious, honest, persistent, fair to friend and 
opponent, these qualities will bear them- 
selves in upon the mind of the reader, 
if the writer has made himself clear in 
setting forth the things that the man 
has been able to do by reason of having 
them. 

Then, too, a good many difficulties arise 
in making anything like a careful estimate 
of such a man. Here is one who for more 
than ten years has been in the fullest blaze 
of publicity, none of it self -sought. Before 
his career became of the highest interest to 
his countrymen he had employed none of 
the ordinary methods to bring himself into 
notice. When nominated for Governor lie 
had no self-prepai*ed biographies, he had 
no literary bureaus, and had indeed made 
few speeches that had been published. 
While much interest attaches to the career 
of a man of this kind — more, indeed, than 



Q ENSEAL ESTIMATE OF CHARACTER. 249 

if lie had come up in the usual way, 
through a city, a State, or a Federal office — 
one writes at all times with the knowledge 
that for many years all his countrymen 
have had an opportunity to analyze his 
character. But though he did not gain 
this faculty for work in the lower grades 
of the public service, he had it when first 
called to the least important office that he 
had held, in which he demonstrated that 
he possessed the same qualities since shown 
in a higher office. It was merely a trans- 
fer from one place to another, a great 
responsibility so far as the public was con- 
cerned, but none the larger so far as the 
habits and thoughts and moral character 
of the man himself were involved. 

Then, too, there is the difficulty of mak- 
ing a final estimate of a man with a career 
like this, who may have a future still 
greater than his past. One might with 
safety make predictions concerning such a 
man — that he would be found always and 
ever doing his work ^v^ith perfect faithful- 
ness — and yet the opportunity might come 
within the bi'iefest time for a work, the 



250 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

greatness of whicli would surpass all that 
he had ever done. But I do not perceive 
that it is my duty to indulge in prophecies. 
I have tried in the preceding chapters to 
tell what the man has done. 1 shall now 
attempt to explain in some measure why, 
in my opinion, he has done these things — 
to set forth in the space that remains to 
me some of my own ideas as to the facul- 
ties that have made him what he is and 
that have given him a great and recognized 
place among his countrymen. 

In the first place Grover Cleveland has 
always been a hard, systematic worker — 
one who does not have to wait for moods. 
When he feels that a thing must be 
done and that he is the man to do it, he 
does not hesitate about it; he does it. 
Whether it be the preparation of a case for 
court, the making of an argument, the 
preparation of a speech on a social or polit- 
ical question, the dispatch of a great mass 
of public business — he does not wait for 
to-morrow to do what ought to be done 
to-day. His " ought " means " must." It 
wa^ almost a natural result when such 



GENERAL ESTIMATE OF CHARACTER. 251 

a man found he had a great mass of work 
to do, that he should steal time from sleep 
and recreation to do it ; so he early formed 
the habit of annexing a great part of the 
night to the day. When he was an assist- 
ant District Attorney, he sat down after 
hours to draw indictments and prepare 
cases against the meeting of the court the 
next morning. When he was a lawyer in 
full practice, he deemed that he owed a 
duty to his clients that could only be per- 
formed by applying to it the same habits of 
faithful and continued eif ort. This has en- 
abled him to do practically the work of 
two men. Probably if he could have seen 
his way to it, he would have enjoyed lei- 
sure just as other men do, but he has not 
felt that he could get it. 

When he became Mayor, he assumed a 
great responsibility to a large number of 
his fellowmen. No man could hope to 
carry on his ordinary employments and 
then to serve the public with such accept- 
ance as Mr. Cleveland did while Mayor, 
without giving a great deal of time to his 
duties — more time, in fact, than the day- 



252 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

light hours could possibly afford. When 
he became Governor, he felt that a still 
greater responsibility was laid upon him. 
If he felt that he did not know how to do 
a thing, he never came to feel that he could 
not learn how to do it, and that to his own 
satisfaction and acceptance to the people 
who had trusted him. While Governor, 
he was in his office night after night con- 
sidering pardon cases, bills sent to him 
from the legislature, and all the varied 
affairs that pertain to an executive office. 
Nothing was shirked. If it was necessary 
to see a number of people, many of them 
without real business, he would see them, 
Just as he would shut himself up for hours 
and consider with the utmost care some 
legislative measure involving the highest 
principles of law or the interpretation of 
the Constitution, or the interests of the 
masses of his constituents. 

When he went into the Presidency, 
w^here the demands upon him w^ere still 
greater — in spite of the fact that he had 
there a Cabinet that considered and adjudi- 
cated the great mass of public business — 



(JHINEEAL ESTIMATE OF CBARAOTEIl 25;] 

n^ found again that lie was the responsible 
official, and that many questions must be 
considered entirely by himself, and a con- 
clusion reached upon them according to his 
best judgment. Here he gave still more 
time to his work — probably an average of 
at least sixteen hours a day during the en- 
tire four years, with only the rest he must 
take. 

In this great office, as in other work that 
had come to him, no detail was too small 
to eno^ao^e his attention if he thouo-ht that 
the question at issue demanded or deserved 
it ; in truth, a question that many men in 
such an office would pass over by accept- 
ing, without question, the opinion of a clerk 
or of a Cabinet officer, seemed to him as 
urgent as some great policy of administra- 
tion might be. He knew that the big 
things would, in some way, take care of 
themselves, while in many cases the little 
ones must have his thought or they might 
be entirely neglected. Many a convict owes 
his pardon to the careful study of his case 
made by the President of the United 
States in the early hours of the morning 



254 A LIFE OF QROVER CLEVELAND. 

when his fellow-citizens were enjoying 
their slumbers. So, too,* many a man with 
a bad claim, which he had pushed through 
the departments and courts, and finally 
through congress, found his way to the 
Treasury blocked because the President of 
the United States had deemed it his duty 
to sit up until two o'clock in the morning 
to do it. 

This facility for work and willingness to 
do it, his almost impatient desire to know 
the ins and outs of every question upon 
which he must decide, have made his work 
far more difficult to him than to the 
ordinary man occupying any similar posi- 
tion. Reference has been made both here 
and in the body of the work to his care 
in investigating pardons. He always ex- 
amined these applications with the greatest 
thoroughness. Whatever the crime may 
have been, whatever the position of the 
man, or however few or many his friends, 
he gave the same care to his work as if the 
people of a nation were waiting to hear his 
decision. Sometimes it would be no more 
than a poor Indian condemned to death or 



GENERAL ESTIMATE OF CHARACTER. 255 

long imprisonment, perhaps for an offense 
comparatively sliglit. Many times lie 
would find in an application something that 
did not seem clear to him — something 
passed over by a clerk or the head of a 
bureau. It might be some knotty point of 
law, that would only attract the attention 
of a judge watchful for every point. If 
such a thing occurred he ^vould send for 
the papers on file, whether in the guber- 
natorial ofiice in Albany or in the Depart- 
ment of Justice in Washington, and go 
over the whole of it as carefully as if 
he were a judge bent upon deciding 
whether the evidence would w^arrant him 
in holding an accused man for trial. 

This was his way. He felt that if any 
man's life or honor was at stake, the duty 
had been put upon him to protect the 
rights of that man, however humble he 
might be, or however much work it might 
impose upon himself. It is not at all 
surprising that such a man should 
have been popular. In such a case popu- 
larity, as it is called, is nothing but a 
natural result of having done his duty 



256 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

as best he could. He felt that if great 
honors were conferred upou him, they also 
brought with them great responsibilities. 
He not only shows this as an official, but in 
private life manifests the same feeling as a 
citizen. If something has to be done, and 
he is thought the best man to do it, he 
does not shirk a duty — never putting him- 
self upon show, never pushing himself into 
publicity — he still feels it incumbent upon 
him to do what in him lies to help a 
worthy cause or man. 

This has made him a thorous^h man 
until thoroughness has become a habit. 
Thus, from the beginning, he had th'e 
faculty of going to the bottom of things. 
So even now, when he makes a speech on 
any question, he takes the opportunity at 
once to become familiar with it in all its 
bearings ; and, as he does not take a posi- 
tion until he has satisfied himself of the 
correctness of his view, ^vhen lie has de- 
cided he does not chans^e with the winds. 

He is in every way an effective speaker. 
This, too, is the result of the same habit of 
thoroughness. That he should speak well 



GENERAL ESTIMATE OF CHARACTER. '267 

is with him a result as natural as it is that 
he should be successful in drawing a legal 
paper. But he has about him little of 
what is called the orator. He does not 
speak on every occasion, and never without 
preparation, or upon some question that 
he has thought out with great care. Most 
of his speeches are short, none so far hav- 
ing taken an hour in its delivery. Of late 
there has been something more of elabora- 
tion, not only because of the greater im- 
portance of the questions and his own 
position in the community, but from his 
own broadening and growing character. 
His manner of delivery is careful and 
weighty. Each sentence is given its 
proper emphasis, although there is no at- 
tempt at declamation. 

It is only natural that a man with these 
qualities — ^the qualities of hard work, hon- 
esty, and simplicity of charactei' — should 
also be a courageous man, and he has 
shown this courage at every point of his 
public career. He does not stop to think 
about the personal effect of a lecture to a 
legislative body or a plain-speaking letter 



258 A LIFE OF G HOVER CLEVELAND. 

to the promoter of some political move- 
ment. Let him once make up his mind 
that a proposed project or a practice is 
wrong, and he does not stop to consider 
the effect upon his own political position 
of the stand he is about to take. So, 
whether he vetoes a five-cent fare bill 
that is thought to be popular, or resists an 
attempt to pass a law that is dangerous, or 
interposes his objection to pension acts or 
public building bills, he never inquires 
in any case what the effect will be upon 
his personal fortunes. The same is true of 
his position upon the silver question and 
other large issues that he has been com- 
pelled to consider both as an official and 
as a private citizen. 

Mr. Cleveland's tastes are plain. He 
has never shown any desire for the osten- 
tation so common in these days. He does 
not deem it incumbent upon him to 
struggle with millionaires to make a dis- 
play, and it may be said with perfect truth 
that he always recalls with pleasure his 
own early struggles and the habits and 
tastes of the plain people with whom his 



GENERAL ESTIMATE OF CHARACTER. 259 

lines were cast during his early and forma- 
tive days. 

He has always had a strong and abiding 
faith in the people, having been with them 
and of them from his earliest years. Men 
engaged in all sorts of occupations and 
professions have come under his notice in 
such a way that he could study their char- 
acters and characteristics. It is due to 
this knowledge that he has gained the 
confidence of his countrymen. Knowing 
them, he has never truckled to them. He 
has never given up his own opinions to 
please them, and has at no time indulged 
in a demagogic utterance. 

As a consequence he has enjoyed for 
many years, perhaps in a larger degree 
than any man known to this generation, 
the confidence of his countrymen. He has 
been able to command this by reason of 
service as well as of character. While in 
ofiice the rights of every man, race, or 
interest were recognized and protected, and 
sectional questions and race differences dis- 
appeared, so far as he could bring about 
this auspicious result. 



260 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

This confidence was never confined to 
any section or to any interest. It was felt 
in every section, trade, business, and call- 
ing, and by men holding every variety of 
opinion on public questions. As the re- 
sult of such a policy he was able to insure 
a wise economy in every branch of the 
public service; the preservation of the 
remnant of our public lands ; the building 
of an effective navy ; the rebuke of political 
selfishness ; the prudent and moderate 
conduct of foreign affairs ; a careful and 
honest reform of the civil service, and a 
wise conservatism in the financial policy of 
the government. His whole administra- 
tion was based upon opposition to State 
Socialism, as it manifested itself in every- 
thing from protection to pauperism ; to 
combinations, whether they took the form 
of industrial trusts or the work of log-roll- 
ing appropriations through congress ; to 
the dangerous and indefinite purpose of 
silver for coinage by the government, and 
to the unnatural fear of foreign competi- 
tion. In all these things Mr. Cleveland 
represented the conservatism and common 



A LITERARY MAN'S ESTIMATE, 261 

sense of Lis country men, and was able to 
carry out so many positive ideas, and to 
destroy or cripple so many dangerous 
tendencies, tliat he has fairly merited the 
confidence he has received from his 
countrymen. 

CHAPTER XV. 

A LITEEAEY MAn's ESTIMATE. 

"55 Clinton Place, 
"New York, August 12, 1892. 
"My Dear Mr. Parker: 

" I am very glad you are to write a life 
of Mr. Cleveland, and hasten to meet your 
request for some impressions of my own 
derived from personal acquaintance. In 
thinking the matter over it occurs to me 
that perhaps the best I can do is to 
make note of some of the reasons why so 
many men of letters have been particu- 
larly attracted by his character and person- 
ality. 

" In the first place, to the man of letters 
the man of action is always interesting. 
If the man of action is also a man of 



262 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

thoiiglit, if he is a man of exceptional 
force, having great mental energy, strength 
of will, and moral courage, the interest is 
increased. Naturally, it is still further 
increased if this man's acts are so fortified, 
by either personal or official authority, as 
to be in themselves public events of the 
first importance ; if, indeed, his convictions 
and the frank utterance of them actually 
change the course of history. 

" To the man of letters there is a special 
interest in a man of action like Mr. Cleve- 
land, owing to certain individual character- 
istics. I refer to a directness of conversa- 
tion and manner — what may be called 
a lack of sophistication — which is partic- 
ularly welcome and refreshing to those 
who are brought into constant association 
with aesthetic and social subtleties. While 
carrying himself on all occasions with 
great dignity and good feeling, this 
country clergyman's son has an almost 
rustic simplicity of thought and tone that 
is democratic and American in the best 
sense. 

" There is another feature of individual 



A LITERARY MAN'S ESTIMATE. 263 

interest appealing 23artieularly to the 
literary mind, and this is the fact that, 
althongh a man of education in the 
ordinary sense of the term, Mr. Cleveland 
has been, after all, chiefly educated, not by 
books and academies, but by actualities — 
as Taine says of Napoleon, by direct con- 
tact with men and things. I know few 
men of action more willing to consider 
carefully a diffeidng view. He sometimes 
arrives slowly, and with laborious investi- 
gation, at his own opinion. But the very 
method of his education — that is,' mainly 
by the world as he has seen and known it — 
tends to clear vision and direct and ef- 
fective action. 

" I must add to the list another trait 
especially attractive to men of letters, 
though the trait itself may be considered 
the very opposite of literary; I refer to 
Mr. Cleveland's admirable lack of anxiety 
about the preservation of literary or other 
records of his own career. In these days 
of ' records ' and ' claims ' it is bracing to 
find a man who, while applying himself 
with intense industry and devotion to the 



264 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND. 

thing to be accomplished, lets the accom- 
plishment pass from his hand without the 
slightest worry about its history. 

" A more literary reason for interest lies 
in the fact that this man of action while 
writing, in his public papers, often with a 
sort of Washingtonian solemnity, has the 
faculty of now and then striking off phrases 
so apt and telling that they pass quickly 
into the currency of popular speech. Judg- 
ing from the list of ' Noted Sayings ' in the 
Stedman-Hutchinson ' Library of American 
Literatm^e/ Mr. Cleveland is remarkable 
for this 'faculty among modern statesmen. 
The list in '• Noted Sayings ' is far from con- 
taining all the fortunate expressions which 
occur in his writings — expressions some- 
times terse and homely, wdth a touch of 
humor "in them, sometimes effective mainly 
through a certain fire of conviction. The 
published book of his ' Writings and 
Speeches ' does not displease me by its itera- 
tion of the simple duties of citizenship, for I 
know how sincere is this note, and how 
profoundly characteristic. If Mr. Cleve- 
land has taken seriously the duties of pub- 



A LITERARY MAN'S ESTIMATE. '^05 

lie office, he takes not less seriously tlie 
duties of that ^public trust' which, in a 
republic like ours, is implied in mere citi- 
zenship itself, and is the prerogative and 
duty of every voter. 

" After all, to men of letters and to pro- 
fessional men in general — men who are a 
little outside of the dusty field of political 
strife — the one thino; about Mr. Cleveland 
most interesting, the thing that differenti- 
ates him from the ordinary politician, is a 
certain moral fury applied to the practi- 
cal affairs of government. Yet, ii. he is 
popularly classed among the reformers, it 
is certainly not among the excellent so- 
called ^ professional reformers.' His repu- 
tation in this respect is the nat\iral result 
of the contact of a straightfor^vard, sincere, 
and strong nature with the honestly as- 
sumed duties of administration. No one 
who is personally acquainted with Mr. Cleve- 
land can fail to recognize the fact that it is 
the essentially moral view which coloi's his 
opinions on nearly all public questions. I 
am perfectly sure that it is his personal con- 
viction of the moral evils which he believes 



266 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

accompany the purely protective theory 
of the tariii' that has led him to assume 
such a determined attitude on this subject 
The moral issues involved have notably 
affected his position as to the civil ser- 
vice and ballot reforms, pensions, inter- 
national copyright, and the silver ques- 
tion. 

"I believe it is this moral earnestness 
which lias given such consistency and con- 
tinuity of purpose to his public record. His 
first message as Mayor of Buffalo w^as even 
more decidedly a prediction of his political 
career than was Cromwell's first recorded 
speech in Parliament a promise of that of 
the . great Protector. Add to this trait, 
moral courage — a trait which even his 
opponents acknowledge and applaud — 
and you have largely accounted for a 
series of conscientious public acts, each 
of which, one after the other, notably 
and consciously endangered his whole 
future career. 

"Beyond the lines of party there is a 
general" recognition of the fact that in such 
deliverances as the tariff message and the 



A LITER AR Y MAN '8 E8TIMA TE. 267 

silver letter and other public and well- 
known acts, bravery of an unusual kind was 
displayed. Mr. Cleveland's personal ac- 
quaintances can bear testimony that the 
private occasions connected mth public 
duties in which he has shown the same 
courage — often along with a unique power 
to resist ' pressure' — have been, to say the 
least, quite as numerous as those known of 
all men, from the time he was Mayor of 
Buffalo to the other day when he declared 
just before the Chicago Convention that he 
would ^ have the Presidency clean or not at 
all.' 

" In speaking of the well-known interest 
of men of letters in the character and per- 
sonality of Mr. Cleveland, my mind natu- 
rally reverts to the public and private 
utterances of that man of letters whose 
admiration for Mr. Cleveland's character I 
consider the most honorable leaf in the 
chaplet of this statesman's fame. In a let- 
ter to a friend, written in 1887, Mr. Lowell 
said : ^ I am glad that you have been seeing 
the President. To me his personality is 
very simpatico. He is a truly American 



268 A LIFE OF GROVEU CLEVELAND, 

type of the best kind — a type very dear to 
me, I confess.' 

'^In the few paragraphs I send you — 
written from a personal and not a partisan 
point of view — I have merely mentioned 
some of the traits that go to make up the 
type of which Lowell speaks. I may note, 
finally, as very characteristic of Mr. Cleve- 
land, that I have never known him to show 
so much pleasure at any appreciation of 
himself as at those lines of Lowell's con- 
tained in a letter sent to Josiah Quincy, 
chairman of the banquet given in 1890 by 
the Merchants' Association of Boston, in 
which lines Lowell did not repeat the high 
praise he had given him on other occasions, 
but simply accorded the ex- President credit 
for honest intentions — for merely doing his 
best. There is no doubt that fair-minded 
men of all parties believe Lowell's lines to 
be true of Mr. Cleveland. Those who have 
seen him near at hand and have been aware 
of the perplexities, the pressures and diffi- 
culties that have encumbered his w^ay, as 
they do that of every man who tries to 
walk the straight path in public life, such, 



A LITERARY MAN'S ESTIMATE. 269 

I say, can well understand why Mr. Cleve- 
land was so deeply touched by these words 
of Lowell : 

" Let who has felt compute the strain 

Of struggle with abuses strong, 
The doubtful course, the helpless pain ' 

Of seeing best intents go wrong. 
We who look on with critic e^^es, 

Exempt from action's crucial test, 
Human ourselves, at least are wise 

In honoring one who did his best. 

" Mr. Cleveland is most fortunate in that 
he has outlived calumny, won from his own 
party unprecedented honors, and met in the 
opposite party wide recognition of his per- 
sonal integrity and honesty of purpose. 
Indeed, some of his most eloquent eulogists 
have been his political opponents. Of 
such a man it is natural that his friends 
should feel moved to speak in terms that 
might savor of extravagance, yet nothing 
would be more out of keeping with the 
character of the man. You well know that 
I have left much unsaid that is in my heart 
to say of one with whom companionship is 
a privilege and an inspiration. 

" I fear there is little here that will be of 



270 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

any great service to you in your work, be- 
cause your own acquaintance witli the sub- 
ject of your sketch makes you well aware 
of the traits of which I have spoken, but 
you are welcome to use anything I have 
written in any way that will best serve 
your purpose. 

" Very sincerely yours, 

" R. W. Gilder. 
" Mr. George F. Parker." 



A SKETCH OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON. 



CHAPTEE I. 

BIETH AND EDUCATION. 

Adlai Ewing Stevenson was born in 
Christian County, Ky., on the 23d of 
October, 1835. His father and mother 
were natives of North Carolina, having 
left there when they were mere children. 
His grandfather Stevenson was one of the 
early settlers of that part of Kentucky. 
His ancestors were Scotch-Irish. The 
paternal great-grandfather of the candidate 
for Vice President was a native of the 
North of Ireland, who settled in North 
Carolina about the beginning of the last 
quarter of the eighteenth century, and his 
son, the grandfather of Mr. Stevenson, 
went, in 1813, to Kentucky, which was 
then a primitive country — far more prim- 
itive, in fact, than any settlement to be 



272 A SKETCH OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON. 

found anywhere in tlie country at the pres- 
ent time, however remote it may be. All 
these men were farmers, as their ancestors 
had been for generations. 

It is difficult to understand in these days 
that the occupation of farming can be 
made so attractive as to lead one generation 
after another to engage in it, but this 
tendency was never stronger — even in the 
most confirmed peasant classes of the old 
world — than it was among the pioneers, 
especially those of the Southern States. 
These people might move on from one 
country to another, or they might go out 
from an old State and found a new one, 
yet they carried with them, wherever they 
went, the same love for the soil that, in all 
generations, has distinguished a large part 
of the people. To a very considerable 
extent this feeling seems to have declined ; 
but it was just as natural for people like 
the Stevensonsto be enrolled as farmers as 
it was apparently for certain families in 
New England to find work and reputation 
generation after generation as clergymen. 

Then, too, the wonderful productiveness 
of North Carolina in the matter of men is 



BIRTH AND ED UGATION. 273 

well illustrated in the early career of the 
Stevensons, and now by the candidate for 
the Vice Presidency who is the subject of 
this sketch. In spite of the fact, now 
illustrated by many decennial census 
reports, that North Carolina has upon its 
soil a larger proportion of peo]3le born 
there than any other State of the Union, it 
is nevertheless true that it has also fur- 
nished an astonishingly large proportion of 
the new settlers — not only for other States 
in the South, but for many in the North. 
That State is indeed the one exception 
to the ordinary rule that immigi-ation 
moves from North to South or from South 
to Nortli. Not only is there a large ele- 
ment of people of North Carolina ancestry 
in all the Southern States, esj)ecially in 
Tennessee, Arkansas, and Kentucky, but the 
number of those in the North who have 
the same blood in their veins is surprising. 
It seems almost natural for these 
people, whatever their condition in life, 
to ^' move on." First a family would 
move, perhaps, across the mountains into 
southern Kentucky ; then the same family, 
or the next generation of it, would find its 



274 A SKETCH OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON. 

way into southern Ohio, into Indiana, or 
into central or southern Illinois. With 
the instinctive desire for moving, these 
people kept on, generation after generation, 
carrying themselves and their household 
goods into many pioneer States and neigh- 
borhoods, until there is scarcely an impor- 
tant settlement anywhere west of Ohio 
that has not had within its limits a consid- 
erable number of people of North Carolina 
birth or ancestry. 

It was this instinct that brought the 
Stevensons and the Ewings, now promi- 
nent figures in this generation in the poli- 
tics of Illinois and the West, into that 
region. It is only by the cessation or tem- 
porary stilling of this desire to move that 
the next generation has not found its way 
still further west into some still newer 
State or Territory ; but this nomadic life, 
confined as it was to the younger in each 
generation, had a wonderful influence 
upon the new States and neighborhoods 
thus peopled, and gave to North Car- 
olina a position that is quite unique in our 
history. Out from her borders have gone 



BIRTB AND EDUCATION. 275 

men like Jackson and Jolinson, botli of 
whom became Presidents of the United 
States, and others, representatives of the 
best blood that had found its way into 
North Carolina in early days from the 
north of Ireland, made careers for them- 
selves. Indeed, this instinct appears, so 
far as the stronger elements are concerned, 
to be confined almost entirely to people of 
Scotch-Irish blood. 

The Stevensons were farmers in Ken- 
tucky, as they had been in North Carolina 
and in Ireland ; so, when the father of Ad- 
lai moved to Bloomington, 111., in 1852, he 
was only proceeding in accordance with 
the instincts and habits of his race. At 
this time the future Vice President was 
sixteen years of age. The community in 
which he thus had his early training was 
entirely agricultural, and the school to 
which he went was an old-fashioned 
country one, in which, for some four or five 
months in the year, some peripatetic peda- 
gogue, or some poor, but aspiring, young 
college student administered to the wants 
of a pioneer community in a log school- 



276 A SKETCH OF ADLAI K STEVENSON. 

house, wliich has long since fallen into such 
utter ruin that it would probably be diffi- 
cult even to find the place where it stood. 
He attended the neighborhood school in 
Kentucky, and, after the removal of the 
family to Illinois, he continued his studies 
there. 

He himself never engaged in farming, 
except it might be in some early efforts 
in which he helped out neighbors or 
friends. But, like many others who have 
come up through this plain and industri- 
ous school, he was not satisfied with his 
surroundings. His father, like all of his 
generation, was just a little bit further 
advanced in the art of money-getting, and 
the instinct for gain had grown so much 
stronger among the people that the sons 
began to look out for a better education 
than their fathers could get or could be 
contented with. 

So, only a little while after the removal to 
Illinois, young Stevenson returned to Ken- 
tucky and entered himself as a student at 
Center College, at Danville, in that State. 
This was a Presbyterian institution, and 



BIRTH AND ED UGA TION. 277 

was quite celebrated iu its time. It has 
sent fortli many good men who have 
made their mark upon the history of their 
times. Among those now or recently 
prominent in public affairs in different 
States may be named : Senator J. C. S. 
Blackburn of Kentucky; Thomas T. Crit- 
tenden, ex-Governor of Missouri ; Repre- 
sentative James B. McCreary, formerly 
Governor of Kentucky and now a promi- 
nent member of the House of Representa- 
tives at Washington; John Young Brown, 
now Governor of Kentucky ; W. C. P. 
Breckinridge; John C. Breckinridge, late 
Vice President of the United States, and 
Claude Matthews, Democratic candidate 
for Governor of Indiana this year, all of 
whom were graduated from this college. 
It has also sent forth a number of men 
who have entered the ranks of the profes- 
sions and gained excellent positions and 
done good work in many localities of 
the State in which it is located and of its 
neighbors. Some of those mentioned were 
fellow-students with young Stevenson, 
who rema-ined two or three years at the 



2V8 A SKETCH OF ADLAI E. HTEVEN80N. 

college, althougli he did not graduate. 
Bat Lis after life goes to show that he 
did not lose the interest in the institution 
which might have been his alma mater. 
Many years afterward he returned to Ken- 
tucky and showed his devotion to the in- 
stitution by marrying the daughter of the 
President of the college, who was the most 
noted figure it ever had — the Rev. Dr. 
Lewis W. Green, a Presbyterian clergyman. 

CHAPTER II. 

PROFESSIOISTAL LIFE AND POLITICS. 

The young man had aspirations for 
something else than farming. Not that he 
looked down upon the employment which 
had given character and sustenance to many 
generations of his ancestors, but, living in a 
new country, he thought he saw an oppor- 
tunity to make a place for himself in his pro- 
fession. So, in his twenty-second year, he 
left college without graduating, and en- 
tered upon the study of the law in Bloom- 
ington, with Robert E. Williams, then him- 



PUOFES^^WXAL LIFE AND POLITICS. 279 

self a comparatively young man, though 
old enough to have attained considerable 
I'eputation as a lawyer and a Democratic 
politician. 

His preceptor, still living and in active 
practice, looks back with interest to the 
days when his young student was making 
his wav throuo-h the difficulties incident to 

t/ o 

the study of the law — difficulties which 
exist nov/ in a degree quite as great as 
they did in the days when the young 
lawyer had fewer advantages in the way of 
libraries. It was not the fashion in those 
days to attend a law school. But young 
Stevenson pursued his studies with 
much earnestness, and with such success 
that in 1859, in his twenty-third year, 
he was admitted to the practice of his 
profession in Bloomington, the town of his 
residence. By a coincidence, Mr. Cleveland 
himself the same year was admitted to 
practice in Buffalo. 

Then it was that the moving instinct 
also found expression in the son of the 
man who had been born in North Carolina, 
moved to Kentucky, and later to Illinois. 



280 A SKETCH OF AD LAI E. STEVENSON. 

In the year of his admission young Steven- 
son left his home in Bloomington and re- 
moved to Metamora, in Woodford Connty, 
of the same State. There he settled down 
to the practice of his profession, doing such 
work as a young lawyei' could find in a 
pioneer community. His law library w^as 
not large, but he had the faculty that 
many others had developed — of using what 
he had to the fullest possible advantage. 
Whatever work he undertook to do he did 
well. 

If the cases intrusted to him w^ere small, 
and his fees still smaller, his expenses were 
light. He had none of the costly tastes 
that belong to these days of luxury, and no 
idea that he must bes^in where his success- 
ful brethren of the law w^ere to leave off. 
His character fitted him for life among a 
people simple in their tastes and ideas, and 
intelligent and active in all good work. 

Soon after his removal to Metamora he 
was appointed a master in chancery, which 
ofiice he held for four years. There w^ere 
in those days no important railroad cases, 
nothing but the ordinary routine business, 



PROFESSIONAL LIFE AND POLITICS. 281 

mainly of an equity character. But it 
gave the young lawyer recognition in sucli 
a community, and enabled him to make 
many legal connections that were valuable, 
not only then so far as fees were con- 
cerned, but such as brought him many 
friends in later years. So well did. he do 
his work that in 1864 he was elected to 
the office of District Attorney, which un- 
der the old constitution of Illinois was an 
office whose work extended over several 
counties. This office he also held for four 
years. Although the district gave about 
a thousand Eepublican majority he was 
elected as a Democratic candidate — his 
first experience of this sort. 

The practice of a lawj^er holding such 
an ofiice is, of course, almost entirely crim- 
inal, and although he had had little expe- 
rience in this he worked hard and did his 
duty justly and fearlessly. The position 
of public prosecutor was then more impor- 
tant than it is now, when the prosecutor 
is oftentimes enabled to bring to his assist- 
ance some of the best members of the bar 
in order to enable him to meet the many 



282 A SKETCH OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON. 

lawyers who are sometimes pitted against 
him in the defense of a man indicted for 
crime. 

The Illinois bar of that day, as before 
and since, was a strong one. Few of the 
newer States of the West have produced 
more lawyers of distinguished ability, more 
men who have made their mark as judges 
and councilors than did that State. There 
were not so many books, but there was 
perhaps more real law. The body of com- 
mon law being smaller, there was not 
the opportunity to quibble that has de- 
veloped during these later days. What- 
ever it was, the lawyers of that day, living 
in a new community, made their mark 
upon it in a most distinctive way. 

As has already been said, the district 
was composed of many counties, and the 
public prosecutor was compelled to follow 
the practice of " riding the circuit/' then 
so common and necessary for the success- 
ful lawyer. As a rule the courts in the 
different counties were held by the same 
judge, the lawyers going from one to an- 
other, and before the days of railroad 



PROFESSIONAL LIFE ANB POLITICS. 283 

commimication they traveled togetlier in 
stages or on horseback, and in such other 
primitive fashion as they must. 

During his incumbency of this office he 
was also enabled to perfect himself in the 
general practice of his profession. This 
embraced nearly everything that the law 
afforded — criminal law, because he was the 
public prosecutor and that was his busi- 
ness ; civil cases of every kind, from the 
simplest to the most important that could 
arise in a community of the character in 
which he lived. The lawyers' offices 
generally looked out on the public square 
— that construction so peculiar to the 
towns of the older West — and were seldom 
closed. Day and night they were open, 
and it is not probable that many keys 
were ever turned in the locks of their 
doors. These offices, as Mr. Stevenson 
once quaintly expressed it, were "almost 
as open as the public square itself," and 
his was no exception. 

He came out of this training — as did his 
chief and running mate on the Democratic 
ticket this year from a sioiilar office — well 



2^4 A SKETCH OF AD LAI E. STEVENSON. 

equipped as a lawyer, with sufficient prac- 
tice to give him coufidence in himself and 
vrit]i a gro^\'ing reputation. He had been 
industrious, honest, and persistent ; he had 
neglected no opportunities, and yet he 
had never permitted himself to resort to 
methods that discredited him then, or that 
he has since had occasion to look upon with 
regret. 

It was almost as natural for a lawyer to 
go into politics in those days as it was for 
him to eat his dinner, and the subject of 
this sketch was no exception to this ten- 
dency. He got his first introduction to 
politics in 1860, when he made some 
speeches in favor of the election of Stephen 
A. Douglas. In 1858, while still a resident 
of Bloomington, the celebrated series of 
debates between Lincoln and Douo-las were 
being carried on thi'oughout the State of 
Illinois. One of them was held at Bloom- 
ington, and it was there that the young 
laA^yer first made the acquaintance of Mr. 
Douglas, then the leading man of his State 
and perhaps of his party in all the country. 
The older man formed a liking for the 



PROFESSIONAL LIFE AND POLITICS. 285 

younger one, and it was perhaps only 
natural that, when the campaign of 1860 
came on, the young lawyer, Just beginning 
his life work in another town, should 
have thrown himself into the contest with 
all his zeal. 

In spite of the fact that he was a Ken- 
tuckian by birth, association, and training, 
Mr. Stevenson refused to support Breckin- 
ridge and allied himself with the Douglas 
or Northern wing of the Democracy. He 
was one of the most earnest of the young 
supporters of that wonderful man, and in 
1861, when, during the dark and early days 
of the war, Douglas died, it was Stevenson 
to whom the people of his town looked 
when they cast about for some man to pro- 
nounce the eulogy upon the life of Senator 
Douglas. This was delivered at Meta- 
mora, 111., on the 4th day of July, 1861. 

In order to give some idea of his method 
of speech in those days, I have selected the 
following extracts from the address in 
question : 

" He died in the prime of mniiliood, nt the 
early age of forty-eiglit, while liis intellect iimI 



286 A SKETCH OF AJDLAI E. STEVENSON. 

faculties were yet undimmed and just as he 
had reached the zenith of his glory. No 
greater honor could have been conferred 
upon him. Like Clay and Webster, he 
never attained the Presidency, but, like Clay 
and Webster, his name will be remembered 
when Tyler is forgotten. He died when his 
country had great need of his services. In 
the hour of our national gloom we looked to 
him for counsel. 

"The congress of the United States will 
assemble to-day, but who can fill that 
vacant chair ? Can you estimate our loss? 
As well you may attempt to count the sand 
upon the seashore or to measure the drops 
of the ocean. But, though dead, he yet 
liveth in the affections of a grateful people. 
His death has sanctified the last acts of his 
life and made sacred the last words he 
uttered to his countrymen. Take those 
words, write them upon your hearts, teach 
them to your children, inscribe them upon 
your banners, and through them its in- 
fluence will be felt and his voice still heard 
calling upon you to ' obey the laws and 
support the Constitution.' 

"He is buried upon the shores of the 
beautiful lake upon whose banks he lived; 
in the bosom of the State that be loved so 
well and served so faithfully. He sleeps 
quietly at his own Cottage Grove, ' with the 
rippling waters of old Michigan for his re- 
quiem, and the shadow of his monument, a 
noble university, resting upon his grave. 
As the faithful Moslem made his annual 



PROFESSIONAL LIFE AND POLVIWS. 287 

pilgrimage to tlie tomb of tlie prophet, so 
will the tomb of Douglas be the Mecca of 
the West, and thither, j^ear after year, will 
be turned the footsteps of tlie American 
patriot, who, lingering around the spot, will 
drop a tear of gratitude and regret npon his 
grave. From that tomb a noble monument 
will pierce the heavens, and as year after 
year passes away it will stand as a living evi- 
dence of our gratitude to the dead. But he 
needs no monument to perpetuate his name. 
His fame is historic; his name is embalmed 
in the hearts of his countrymen. Need I 
speak of his social qualities % He attracted 
men to him as the magnet attracts the 
needle. K devoted partisan, a warui friend, 
an affectionate husband, and an uncom- 
promising patriot, truly he was such a man, 
'take liim for all in all, we shall not look 
upon his like again.' Like the great Pitt of 
England, he was the friend of the common 
people. The mechanic in his shop, and the 
laborer upon our great thoroughfares, felt 
that in him they had a friend. Sprung 
from an humble origin himself, he gave a 
helping hand to all who were struggling 
through poverty and obscurity to obtain 
positions in life. 

"Not only from the palaces of wealth 
and splendor, but from the hut of poverty, 
from the cottage of the humble and lowly in 
life do we behold the symbols of sorrow and 
grief." 

In 1864 Mr. Stevenson was nominated 



288 A SKETCH OF ADLAI E. STEVEJSSON. 

by the Democratic State Convention as a 
district elector for McClellan. He then 
made speeches throughout the counties 
which composed his congressional district, 
one of the lai'gest in the State, and came 
out of the canvass with still wider reputa- 
tion. 

During the war Mr. Stevenson was a 
strong Union man, and, while he did not 
participate personally, he did a great deal 
of work in the raising of troops in Wood- 
ford County. In this way he assisted in 
organizing the One Hundred and Eighth 
Illinois Regiment, the colonel of which 
was John Warner, now Mayor of Peoria, 
a sturdy Democrat, and then, as now, a 
strong personal friend of Stevenson. The 
lieutenant colonel of the regiment was the 
Sheriff of Woodford County, and as a re- 
sult of the work done by Stevenson and 
others two companies of the regiment in 
question were raised in that county. 
Years after, when Stevenson had become a 
candidate for Congress, and was subjected 
to the usual abuse in those days heaped 
upon a Democrat, this same lieutenant 



SERVICE m CONGRESS. 289 

colonel, K. L. Sid well, tlieu of Chicago, 
came out in a letter over his own 
name, in which he told of the work tliat 
Mr. Stevenson had done and so refuted 
effectively the vile charges. From that 
day to this no man in Illinois has ever 
been so audacious as to repeat such a 
charge. However, unlike many rising 
young men of that day, Stevenson re- 
mained a Democrat. 



CHAPTER in. 

SERVICE IN CONaRESS. 

In 1869 Mr. Stevenson returned to 
Bloomington. For some years he had very- 
little to do with politics, but gave his time 
to perfecting himself in his profession and 
to making a legal position for himself in a 
town where he was then little known as a 
public man. His practice was still of the 
same general character, although after the 
end of his term as District Attorney he 
gave little attention to criminal matters. 

His life moved along in this quiet 



290 A SKETCH OF ABLAI E. STEVENSON. 

groove until 1874, wlaen lie was nominated 
for congress. All the elements opposed 
to tlie Republican party in the district in 
wliicli lie lived, then Republican by about 
four thousand majority, united in his sup- 
port. He sought no nominations, wrote 
no letters of acceptance, but simply went 
into the contest, holding joint discussions 
with his opponent and predecessor. Gen- 
eral John McNulta. Of this Mr. Steven- 
son himself now says : ^'' There Avas no word 
personally offensive spoken by either of 
the candidates during the entire canvass. 
After the election we were just as good 
friends as we were before." 

General McNulta has since been prom- 
inent in public life, and in 1888 was a 
prominent candidate for the Republican 
nomination for Governor of his State. It 
is also interesting to know that after Mr. 
Stevenson had been nominated for Vice 
President in June of this year, the man 
who made the speech at the wonderful 
ovation that awaited him in his own town 
was General McNulta. The friendship 
formed between them had o-rown A\ith the 



SERVICE IN CONGRESS. 291 

years. No professional or political rivalry 
had had the least effect upon it. 

Mr. Stevenson entered congress in the 
first House of Representatives controlled 
by the Democrats after the war. For 
fourteen years the Republicans had held 
absolute control not only of the Executive 
but of both houses of congress. But the 
tidal wave of 1874 brought into the House 
a large number of new men, defeating 
many Republicans who had been most 
prominent in the drastic legislation of the 
war period. 

When the Forty-fourth Congress con- 
vened, the contest for the speakership was 
between Michael C. Kerr of Indiana and 
Samuel J. Randall of Pennsylvania. Both 
had seen lono- service and had attained 
about equal prominence. Mr. Kerr was 
known generally as a tariff reform can- 
didate, because he had given much atten- 
tion to questions of revenue and taxation ; 
while Mr. Randall was known as the ad- 
vocate of economical appropriations, and 
had developed in the preceding congress a 
great faculty for leading the minority, and 



292 A SKETCH OF ADLAI E. 8TEVEN80N. 

thereby preventing the passage of the 
Force bill. The contest between them 
was sharp, and Mr. Stevenson, being an 
ardent tariff reformer, and living in a 
State adjoining that of Mr. Kerr, allied 
himself with the Indiana candidate, who 
was elected. 

Although a new member, he was as- 
signed to a place on the Committee on 
Territories, then far more important than 
now when nearly all of the Territories 
have been admitted to the Union as States. 
And he was also made a member of the 
Committee on the District of Columbia. 
This was really one of the most important 
committees in that congress. The Forty- 
third Congress had entirely changed the 
system of government in Washington — the 
revelations made about the improvements 
carried on by Alexander E. Shepherd, the 
great debt entailed upon the District, and 
the immense cost of the wonderful improve- 
ments, which really did so much to make 
Washington a city, together with many 
other local scandals growing out of the fact 
that a large proportion of the voters of the 



SERVICE IN GONORESS. 293 

District were negroes, had induced the 
Eepublicans of the Forty-third Congress to 
deprive the District of what was called 
"self-government" and to make it really 
dependent upon congressional appropria- 
tions. Matters had not yet adjusted them- 
selves to the new conditions and all the 
work fell upon the House Committee on 
the District. It had in charge the devis- 
ing of a system of taxes and assessments, 
the government of the police, and all the 
various minutise relating to the govern- 
ment of an important city which had been 
so long misgoverned that an entirely new 
system was made necessary. Much of the 
work done by this committee was very 
laborious, and yet it was of such a charac- 
ter that very little report of it came to the 
light, being a working committee, not a 
dress parade one. 

The Presidential election of 1876 oc- 
curred during the life of the Forty-fourth 
Congress. It is not necessary to review 
the events that led up to a disputed Presi- 
dency. It is sufficient for the purposes of 
this sketch to say that Mr. Stevenson was 



294 A SKETCH OF AD LAI E. STEVENSON. 

a firm supporter of tlie Electoral Commis- 
sion bill, under the provisions of which a 
commission, composed of five senators, five 
members of the House of Representatives 
and ^YQ Justices of the Suj)reme Court — 
the fifth of whom was chosen by the other 
four — was authorized by law and selected 
under its provisions, and that he was strongly 
in favor of the commission bill and made a 
vigorous sj)eech in its favor. 

After the decision had been rendered 
by the commission, a considerable number 
of Democrats, under the leadership of 
William M. Springer of Illinois, now Chair- 
man of the Ways and Means Committee, 
and George M. Beebe of New York, under- 
took to carry on a filibustering contest to 
prevent the confirmation of what nearly 
everybody conceded to be a great wrong. 
While Mr. Stevenson deprecated the de- 
cision of the commission, he contended that 
the whole question had been submitted to 
the tribunal appointed by congress, and 
that its decision, whatever it might be. 
should be carried out in good faith. To 
him the peace of the country was para- 



SERVICE IN CONGRESS. 295 

mount and tlie patli of duty was plain, and 
he saw no reason why he should not follow 
it, in spite of the fact that it defeated the 
candidate of his party for the Presidency. 
While these filibustering proceedings w^ere 
going on Mr. Stevenson made a brief 
speech condemning them and insisting that 
the decision of the commission should be 
allowed to stand. Later, in February, 
1877, when the last vote on the question 
was about to be taken, he made another 
brief speech on the same question, in which 
he said : 

'' Mr. Speaker, we have now reached the 
final act of this great drama, and the record 
here made will pass into history. Time, the 
great healer, will bring a balm to those who 
feel sick at heart because of this grievous 
wrong. But who can estimate, what seer 
can foretell, tlie evils that may result to us 
and our children from this judgment ? For- 
tunate, indeed, will it be for this country if 
our people lose not faitli in popular institu- 
tions. Fortunate, indeed, if they abate not 
their confidence in the integrity of that liigh 
tribunal, for a century the bulwark of our 
liberties. In all times of popular commo- 
tion and peril, the Supreme Court of the 
United States has been looked to as the final 
arbiter, its decrees heeded as the voice of 



296 A SKhJTGH OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON. 

God. How disastrous raay be the result of 
decisions so manifestly partisan, I will not 
attempt to forecast. 

" Sir, let tins vote be now taken and the 
curtain fall upon these scenes forever. To 
those who 'believe, as I do, that a grievous 
wrong has been suffered, let me entreat that 
this arbitrament be abided in good faith, 
that no hindrance or delay be interposed to 
the execution of the law, but that by faith- 
ful adherence to its mandates, by honest 
efforts to revive the prostrate industries of 
the country and restore i^ublic confidence by 
obedience to the constituted authorities, we 
will show ourselves patriots rather than 
partisans in the hour of our country's mis- 
fortunes." 

In the congressional elections of 1876 
Mr. Stevenson, renominated by all the ele- 
ments in his district opposed to the Ke- 
publican party, had been defeated by 
Thomas F. Tipton by a majority of less 
than 850 votes, although the Eepublican 
candidate for President had carried the dis- 
trict by several thousand. 

After his retirement from congress Mr. 
Stevenson returned to the practice of his 
profession in Bloomington. He never per- 
mitted anything to keep him away from 
his practice except those public duties 



SmVICE IN CONGRESS. 29^ 

wliich he would not shirk. AVhile lie was 
in congress his law practice had been 
kept up, during his absence, by his 
partner, James S. Ewing, so that he 
had only to return to it to find plenty of 
work. He did so then, as he had always 
done after his retirement from the impor- 
tant public offices that he has held. 

In 1878 Mr. Stevenson was nominated 
by the convention of his party, and was 
supported by all the elements opposed to 
the Republicans. As usual, he did not 
push himself upon his party, but, once 
nominated, he deemed it his duty to enter 
the field and give the best service he 
possibly could. His personal popularity 
stood him in good stead again, and he was 
returned to congress, after two years' 
absence, by a good majority. 

This contest was made just after the 
agitation against the so-called demonetiza- 
tion of silver and the opposition to tlie 
legal tender clause of the greenback had 
become political issues. These questions 
were under full discussion. Mr. Stevenson 
took the view then popular in the West on 



298 A SKETCH OF ADLAI E. 8TEVEN80N. 

these issues. He was in favor of the re- 
monetizatiou of silver, accomplished only a 
few months before by the passage of what 
has since been known as the Bland bill, 
providing for the coinage of not less than 
two millions and not more than four mil- 
lions per month of standard silver dollars 
of 41 2i grains. Mr. Stevenson was elected 
by nearly two thousand majority, the dis- 
trict remaining Republican by a large 
majority on other candidates. 

So he entered the Forty-sixth Congress. 
In it the principal committee upon which 
he served was that upon "Private Land 
Claims." This was almost entirely a 
judicial committee. His legal training- 
stood him in good stead, because this com- 
mittee had jurisdiction in all matters per- 
taining to the settlement of claims growing 
out of the treaty between Mexico and the 
United States after the Mexican War and 
the territory which was ceded to the 
United States — such as Calif oi-nia and 
other States. In order to do his work 
effectively it was necessary to study care- 
fully the Spanish laws relating to land. 



SERVICE IN CONGRESS. 299 

He did his work here, as everywhere, care- 
fully and conscieutiousl}", sparing no labor 
necessary to reach a complete and intelli- 
gent understanding of every question sub- 
mitted to him. 

In this congress also came up what was 
known in that day as the "Army bill," in 
which the Democrats sought to force, as a 
rider in the Appropriation bill, a clause 
prohibiting the use of the army in the 
Southern States. Upon this bill Mr. 
Stevenson made a short and vigorous 
speech, which not only attracted atten- 
tion at the time but has been liberally 
reprinted since his nomination for the 
Vice Presidency.- This was really the 
agitation succeeding the original Force 
bill, fathered by General Butler and de- 
feated by Mr. Blaine, and pi-eceding 
the election bill proposed in the Fifty- 
first Congress by Mr. Lodge and passed 
under the party discipline then carried 
out so effectively by Thomas B. Heed, 
the Speaker. 

This speech condemning the application 
of force bills was so apt that it might well 



300 A SKETCH OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON. 

be aj)plied to the existing situation. He 
said: 

"It would be difficult to conceive of a 
question of higher moment, or which more 
vitally concerns the sacred right of the 
citizen, than that of the exercise of the 
elective franchise free from apprehension 
of unauthorized arrest and imprisonment. 
This is the chief corner stone of all his other 
rights and privileges. Are the liberties of 
the citizen safe when he can be obstructed 
in the choice of his representative, whether 
by the armed soldiery or by the deputy 
marshals ? He who believes that the Amer- 
ican people will consent that their liberties 
may permanently be held by so brittle a 
tenure has studied the history of our race 
to little purpose. The purity of the ballot 
box must be maintained. None should be 
X:>ermitted to api^roach it except such as 
have the lawful qualifications. To these 
the pathway must be unobstructed. Every 
necessary guard must be thrown around it 
to protect it against fraud. But, while this 
is true, it is all-important that the right of 
the people, unawed by menace, to select 
their representatives should not be abridged. 
Upon the full exercise of this right depends 
not only the maintenance of the independ- 
ence of the po23ular branch of our govern- 
ment, but of the integrity of the government 
itself." 

Mr. Stevenson has been a consistent 



SERVICE IN CONGRESS. 301 

Democrat all his life. His first vote, cast 
ill 1856, Avas for Mr. Buchanan, and lie has 
never supported the nominee of any other 
party than his own. Whatever the elec- 
tion might be — National, State, or local — 
he has looked upon himself, and his neigh- 
bors and friends have looked upon him, as 
a consistent partisan. It is quite remark- 
able, indeed, that a man of such strong 
opinions and affiliations should have been 
able to command the support of the inde- 
pendent elements in such a district at 
various times, but this conies generally 
from his strong character and the fact 
that he has all his life been prudent in 
speech and utterance, kindly to his neigh- 
bors, and fortunate enough not to excite 
those enmities and jealousies that injure 
so many men. 

Ill 1880 he was again renominated, but 
w^as defeated by a majority of only 242, 
and that, too, during the Presidential con- 
test, when his district gave 3000 Kepubli- 
can majority. This closed his congres- 
sional career, upon which he resumed the 
practice of the law in the same general 



302 A SKETCH OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON. 

line. During this canvass bis old friend 
and townsman, David Davis, then a United 
States Senator, wrote a letter in favor of 
Mr. Stevenson, extracts from which are 
interesting now. In it he said : 

uj i-egret my inability to attend your 
meeting, the more so because it would have 
afforded me an opportunity to bear personal 
testimony to the claims of Hon. A. E. 
Stevenson, who is up for re-election to con- 
gress, and who deserves the support of 
every fair-minded and independent voter. 
Mr. Stevenson unites in his character and 
candidacy the qualities which Jefferson 
defined as the necessary conditions for prop- 
erly filling a public trust. He is honest, he 
is capable, and he is faithful to duty. 

•'As a representative, the peoi3le of this 
district, whether Democrats, Rei:)ublicans, 
or Nationals, have reason to be proud of 
him, for on all test questions he has risen 
above the narrow restraints of party, guided 
by the ]principles of right, and animated by 
a moral courage that never faltered in 
asserting his convictions. 

"The soldier, the soldier's widow, and 
the soldier's children have found in him a 
vigilant, a valuable, and an untiring friend, 
to whose influence and efforts they owe 
relief that has soothed many sorrows. 

"Enjoying the fullest confidence and re- 
spect of all parties in congress, he has done 
very much to serve local and State interests. 



SERVICE IN CONGRESS. 303 

This experience will enable him to do more 
than any new member could hope to achieve, 
for the first term is practically the infant 
school of a legislator. 

" If there was no better reason than self- 
interest to recommend him, he ought to be 
returned again. But as he stands upon a 
higher plane, and asks the approval of an 
intelligent and a just constituency upon the 
merits of his congressional career, it should 
be given gratefully and generously." 

In 1884 lie was elected as a delegate to 
the National Convention wliicli nominated 
Mr. Cleveland the first time, and was a 
member of the Notification Committee. 
The first time he met Mr. Cleveland ^vas 
when, as a member of that committee, the 
candidate was notified of the nomination 
in Albany on July 29, 1884. While the 
Notification Committee was in session at 
Albany, a large ratification meeting ^vas 
held, at which the late Samuel J. Randall, 
Patrick A. Collins, the late Governor 
Walker of Virginia, Representative Hooker 
of Mississippi, and Mr. Stevenson were 
the speakers. He took an active part 
in that campaign, canvassing a great part 
of the State of Illinois for Mr. Cleveland. 



304 A SKETCH OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON. 

CHAPTER IV. 

IN THE POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT. 

In August, ] 885, Mr. Stevenson was ten- 
dered the office of First Assistant Post- 
master General. He was never an appli- 
cant for the phxce, but he was on intimate 
terms with Postmaster General Vilas, who 
recommended the appointment, and was 
exceedingly anxious to obtain Mr. Steven- 
son's services in his department. 

This office was then by far the most im- 
portant in the whole Post-Office Depart- 
ment, after the Postmaster General himself. 
Its work Avas divided within a few months 
after Mr. Stevenson's retirement from 
office, in March, 1889, and its duties are 
now distributed between the office of First 
Assistant Postmaster General and the new 
office of Fourth Assistant Postmaster Gen- 
eral. As it was then constituted, it in- 
cluded a good deal more than half of the 
work of the department. Everytliing re- 
lating to the appointment of postmasters 
and their bonds, to the free delivery 



IJSr THE POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT. 305 

services, to salaries and allowances, and 
other smaller bureaus, was attached to 
this office, the head of which w^as com- 
pelled to make himself familiar with the 
details of the vast business confided to 
him. 

Naturally, the most important work — 
that requiring the best judgment of its 
incumbent — related to the appointment of 
what are known as ''Fourth-Class Post- 
masters." Of the entire number of post- 
masters (then nearly 60,000) only a little 
more than 2000 belonged to the first, sec- 
ond, and third classes, and were what are 
known as "Presidential Officers." These 
appointments were made by the President 
upon the advice of the Postmaster General. 
Of the other 58,000, the task of making the 
appointments was lodged in the First As- 
sistant's office, and in only a comparatively 
small number of cases was the Postmaster 
General himself even consulted about the 
appointment that should be made. It was 
in this office, how^ever, he made the reputa- 
tion of being a headsman of postmasters. 
That he did remove a large number of 



:^00 A SKETCH OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON. 

sucli officials is undoubtedly true, but that 
lie improved the service at every turn is 
also true. 

During the twenty-iive years' term of 
power of the Republicans these fourth- 
class postmasters had been used as mere 
pawns on the political chessboard. They 
had become a compact body of active, 
energetic politicians, working at every 
cross-road ; and that, too, in obedience to 
orders from National, State, or local Repub- 
lican committees and partisan managers. 
A goodly number of them had perhaps 
neglected the duties of their offices, or had 
become purely subordinate to the purposes 
of their partisan managers. It was, there- 
fore, necessary for a Democratic Adminis- 
tration, entering upon power after a long 
exclusion from it, to reach these officials 
and to teach them that their tenure of 
office was not for life. But this wonderful 
power, perhaps the greatest lodged in any 
single man by any government in the 
world, was not abused. Changes were 
not made so rapidly as to injure the 
effectiveness of the service, nor upon the 



IN THE POST-OFFICE DJUPARTMENT. JiOV 

mere whim of a membei* of con caress or of 
a patron. 

It was necessary that Democrats should 
be appointed to these places. The inso- 
lence of power, together with the partisan 
use that had been made of them and the 
kind of men that had been appointed — 
men, in many cases, wdio had held them so 
long that they looked upon themselves as 
having a mortgage upon them — all ren- 
dered it absolutely essential to the good of 
the service, as well as to the assertion of 
the ideas of the party that had gained 
power, that in these smaller offices the 
changes should be made. 

In fact, the responsibilities of these places 
are quite as great, if not greater than some 
of the large offices, and as to their relative 
importance there is no comparison what- 
ever. It makes little difference to a large 
community what may be the personal bear- 
ing or the political methods of a postmaster. 
The people do not come in contact with 
him, but in the small places, if a man is 
offensive to a few of his neighbors he soon 
becomes offensive to most of them, because 



308 A SKETCH OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON. 

the qualities whicli make him so in the one 

case are almost certain to produce the same 

result in the other. 

As showing Mr. Stevenson's attitude 

toward his own business interests, as they 

might be affected by his official position, 

the following letter, which explains itself, 

may be of interest : 

" PosT'Office Department, 
''Office First Asst. Postmaster Gen., 
"Washington, D. C, July 27, 1886. 
"Thomas J. Bunn, Postmaster, 
" Bloomington, III. 
"Dear Sir: In reply to your inquiry 
whether the removal of the Bloomington 
post office at the expiration of the present 
lease to Stevenson block is contemplated by 
the department, I answer it is not. Inas- 
much as a number of gentlemen for whom I 
maintain a high regard have written me 
suggesting the removal, I should be glad to 
have them know my views upon the sub- 
ject. Stevenson block is owned by members 
of my own family, whicli fact, while I sus- 
tain my present position, wholly excludes it 
from consideration as a location for a post 
office. The exercise of official power to 
promote the pecuniary interest of one's self 
or one's friends cannot, in my judgment, 
under any possible circumstances, be jus- 
tified. Yours very traly, 

"A.'E. Stevenson." 



/iV THE POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT. 309 

In February, 1889, just before the close 
of the Cleveland administration, Mr. Ste- 
venson was nominated without consultation 
with him as Associate Justice of the 
Supreme Court of the District of Colum- 
bia, but as a Republican President had 
been elected in the meantime, the Senate 
took advantage of this fact to " hang up " 
the appointment, and so the nomination 
was neither confirmed nor rejected. Mr. 
Cleveland was very much attached to his 
appointee for judge, and it is not too much 
to say that he regretted very seriously 
the defeat of his purpose in this Avay. He 
would have made an excellent judge in 
every way. His legal training and temper 
are such that he would soon have made his 
mark as judge in an important court like 
that of the District of Columbia. 

In April, 1892, he was elected a dele- 
gate-at-large by his State convention to the 
National Convention at Chicago, and was 
afterward chosen as chairman of the dele- 
gation. It is scarcely necessary to review 
his relations with the Cleveland canvass. 
Ever since the close of the Democratic 



310 A SKETVII OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON. 

administration, in 1889, Mr. Stevenson lias 
been looked upon as the firm friend of Mr. 
Cleveland, and he has always insisted that 
the one thing to do was to nominate Mr. 
Cleveland. He was potent in bringing this 
about during the convention, and was the 
original chairman of the conference com- 
mittee composed of prominent Cleveland 
men from every State that took under its 
charge the duties of the canvass. 

Immediately after his retirement from 
office Mr. Stevenson returned to his home 
in Bloomington, resumed the active prac- 
tice of his profession, and has been engaged 
in his old Avork ever since. Since that 
time he has manifested his old-time interest 
in politics, as well as in business matters, 
by taking an active part in the interests of* 
the location of the World's Fair at Chicago. 

After his own nomination and the ad- 
journment of the convention he returned 
home. The citizens of his own city, a 
strongly Republican one, closed up their 
places of business and turned out with 
almost absolute unanimity to tender him a 
reception. 



IN THE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT. 3 1 1 

At this a speech was made by his old- 
time political opponent and personal friend, 
General John McNulta. The most compli- 
mentary references were made to the can- 
didate for the Vice Presidency, and every- 
thing showed that his standing among his 
neighbors was such as to justify this genei'al 
approbation of his career and the celebration 
of his nomination as candidate for the Vice 
Presidency. He also made a speech at 
Peoria, in his State, on the Fourth of July, 
that has attracted a good deal of attention. 

Mr. Stevenson is the President of the 
McLean County Coal Company, in which 
he owns a small amount of stock. The 
mine itself is mainly owned by members 
of his family — his brother-in-law having 
been the original President and for many 
years the active manager of the company. 
It was, therefore, only natural that the coal 
miners, of whom an average of about 225 
are employed the year round, should ex- 
press their approbation of the nomination 
of the President of the company by ten- 
dering him a serenade. This was done 
on July 11. 



512 A SKETCH OF ADLAT E. STEVENSON. 

As showing Mr. Stevenson's relations to 
the labor question and laboring people, it 
is interesting to read the speech made by 
him on this occasion in reply to Mr. Rad- 
ford, the pit boss and spokesman of the 
miners : 

"It has been my good fortune on more 
than one occasion to witness manifestations 
of the kindly feelings entertained toward 
me by neighbors and fellow-townsmen, but 
I can say to you in perfect candor that your 
visit to-night and your words of kindness 
have touched me more deeply than I have 
ever been touched before. It is indeed 
gratifying now that the most cordial rela- 
tions exist between the officers of our com- 
pany and all of those who are employed in 
its service. As has been truly said by your 
chairman, but few disagreements have ever 
occurred between yourselves and the com- 
pany, and these liave been amicably settled. 
During the time I have been President of 
the company no disagreement or misunder- 
standing of any kind has arisen. 

" I was more than gratified at the remark 
of Mr. Radford that I had not only treated 
you with justice, but always with kindness. 
I have certainly aimed to do so. Mr. Rad- 
ford has referred to the fact that many of 
you have homes of your own in the village 
of Stevensonville, paid for out of your earn- 
ings at the mine. It has been a source of 
great pleasure to my brothers and myself 



IN THE POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT. 3 1 3 

that our efforts to enable each of you to pro- 
cure a comfortable home has met with such 
gratifying success. 

^'The most kindly and cordial feelings 
should ever exist between the employer and 
the employed. All disagreements should 
be settled either by conference or by arbi- 
tration. It has been my firm conviction for 
years that organization looking solely to 
their bettering and the protection of their 
rights is a necessity to the wage-earners. I 
will detain you a moment with an additional 
suggestion. It is this : By appropriate leg- 
islation when needed, but especially by the 
management of all the industrial enterprizes 
of the country, the hours of toil should be 
lessened. This would give to the wage- 
earner more time for the enjoyment of his 
home and the society of his family." 

These were no newly acquired opinions of 
Mr. Stevenson's — opinions that had come 
to him after nomination for an important 
office. To show this it is only necessary 
to quote a few sentences from a political 
speech made by him on September 12, 1878, 
in which he thus referred to the rights 
of labor : 

"At no previous period of our history 
have the rights of the laboring men been so 
earnestly pressed upon our attention. It is 
the part neither of humanity nor of sound 
statesmanship to close our eyes to the griev- 



314 A SKETCH OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON. 

ances and distress of this large and useful 
class of our citizens. It cannot be denied 
that for some cause or causes labor is failing 
to meet with its just reward. To a large ex- 
tent the evils complained of are the inevit- 
ableVesults of the vicious financial legislation 
to which I have referred. There should be no 
antagonism between employed capital and 
labor. It is idle and unproductive capital 
which antagonizes labor. It must be ad- 
mitted that the improvements in machinery 
during the last few years have to a large 
extent supplanted human labor. But I can 
hardly believe that the invention of genius, 
dispensing with the hard labor of human 
hands, is in the end to prove a curse rather 
than a blessing to our race. 

"In the end, under a proper adjustment 
of the rights of labor and of capital, labor- 
saving machinery must prove a benefit by 
shortening the hours of toil and adding to 
those of social and intellectual recreation. 
The important inquiry is, How can the re- 
spective rights of labor and capital be so 
adjusted that labor may meet with its just 
recomj)ense ? It is a question of difiicult 
practical solution, but it is an encouraging 
fact that the attention of so many earnest 
and thoughtful men is now being called to 
its consideration. Intelligent discussion is 
necessarily the forerunner of all reforms. 
I would favor the appointment by congress 
of sf commission to collect facts and statis- 
tics bearing upon this inquiry, and to ascer- 
tain the opinions of x^i'^ictical, thoughtful 



CHAR A CTERISTICS AND S VCCESS. 3 1 5 

men with a view to such legislation as 
would solve this question and secure to 
labor the just reward of its service. It has 
been truly said that "Government should 
protect labor, capital being always able to 
protect itself." • 



CHAPTEE V. 

CHAEACTEEISTICS AND SUCCESS. 

The unusual name, Adlai, first appeared 
in the Stevenson family in Adlai Osborn, 
who was the clerk of Rowan County, N. 
C, as far back as 1775, when it was still a 
colony. He was an uncle of Mr. Steven- 
son's grandfather, and the name, so far as 
the candidate for the Vice Presidency can 
recall, has been confined almost entirely to 
his family and to those persons named for 
himself and other members of his family 
during the many generations that it has 
been current. 

Few men have a larger acquaintance the 
country over than Mr. Stevenson. He is 
not only associated politically with a large 
number of men, but his family and personal 
relations have been such as to brino; him 



316 A SKETCH OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON. 

into close relations with almost as many 
as he had come to know through politics. 
His acquaintance, therefore, especially in 
the South, where he is known by reason of 
Kentucky and North Carolina ancestry, is 
perhaps unsurpassed by that of any man 
now living in the United States. This 
applies not only to men now prominent 
in politics, but to those who have been 
prominent since the days of reconstruction ; 
that is, since his election to congress in 
1874. 

Mr. Stevenson is not a man of wealth ; 
he has never been a money-maker. He is, 
however, in moderate circumstances, hav- 
ing always been a prudent and thrifty man, 
without any of the ostentation that can 
only be satisfied by the expenditure of 
money. ■ 

He is a collector of books and has a very 
good and well chosen library. He is not 
only a collector, but he is a reader. His 
studies have been mainly in the line of 
history, more especially of American politi- 
cal history. 

As a lawyer he has never run to special- 



CHAR A GT ERISTICS A ND S UCCESS. 3 1 7 

ties, but lias given liis atteution to that 
general practice of the law so common in 
an agricultural community. He has been 
more successful, perhaps, as a jury lawyer 
than in anything else. He has an excel- 
lent command of language, knows his case 
well, studies carefully the character of the 
jury to whom he must make appeal, and 
has a faculty of keeping them interested in 
the case. He does not make long legal 
arguments; in fact, his political speeches 
and addresses to juries have seldom been 
more than an hour and a half long, with an 
averao-e of about an hour. 

Mr. Stevenson's conception of his profes- 
sion and the dignity and responsibility of 
the lawyer were w^ell shown in an address 
delivered by him before the students of 
the Illinois Wesleyan University, Novem- 
ber 5, 1873, in which he said : 

^' No man should enter the profession of 
the law through merely mercenary motives. 
If he has no higher aim than the accumula- 
tion of wealth he had better seek some less 
laborious and more lucrative calling. The 
same intellectual ability in another avoca- 
tion, with one-half the toil, anxiety, Jind 
weariness of the lawyer's life, would bring 



318 A SKETCH OF ADLAl E. STEVENSON. 

far greater gains to Lis coffers. He who 
enters this profession should do so actuated 
by far nobler, holier purposes. It should be 
his aim to master those great principles upon 
which the structure of human society rests ; 
the great principles and laws by which right 
is made superior to might; by which the 
moral and intellectnal attributes of our 
nature are made to rise superior to and to 
control mere brute force. Nay, more than 
this, it is his high prerogative to assist in 
administering that God-like quality — jus- 
tice — tempered ofttimes by that still more 
God-like attribute — mercy. 

"Let no man, then, enter this profession 
with a mistaken idea of his duties, its re- 
sponsibilities. The life of a lawyer is not 
one of ease, but a life of w^eariness, both to 
the body and mind. There is no royal road 
to victory, but he who ascends to the highest 
niche in the temple of fame does so only 
after many years, perhaps a long life, of 
unwearied effort. While this is true it is 
also true that save only the ministers of 
God's holj^ church no calling in this life 
affords such opportunities for the attain- 
ment of noble ends, the accomplishment of 
glorious purposes. Upon the bar rest great 
responsibilities. To whom much is given, 
of them much will be required. In propor- 
tion as the lawyer is endowed with great 
abilities are his responsibilities great. In 
proportion as are his opjiortunities will be 
demanded of him the talents given, with 
usury, at that tribunal whose judgments 



CHARA CTERISTICS AND SUCCESS. 3 1 9 

are founded in wisdom and from whose de- 
crees there is no appeal. 

" I have spoken of the duties and require- 
ments of the profession ; need I speak of its 
rewards ? The greatest is, in the prospect 
of a busy life, to know that your high office 
has never been prostituted to base purposes ; 
that it has never been an engine of oppres- 
sion ; that in you the weak and helpless 
have ever found a defendant ; that the vic- 
tims of injustice and wrong have never 
sought your aid in vain ; that your influence 
and example have ever been on the side of 
tlie right, for those measures and reforms 
that purify and elevate our race. As we ap- 
proach the dark river from whose farther 
shore no traveler has ever yet returned, a 
consciousness that we have caused the faces 
of sorrowing childhood to light up with joy, 
that to the widow in her weeds of mourning 
we have indeed been benefactors, will be 
more glorious far than to have left behind us 
monuments of marble, a name in history, or 
to have worn the jewels of royalty." 

As a political speaker he has adapted 
himself well to the Western manner. He 
tells a variety of interesting stories in 
order to keep his audience in good humor 
with himself and the 'subject upon which 
he is speaking. He is an inimitable story- 
teller, whether on the platform or in pri- 
vate life, and few men other than profes- 



320 A SKETCH OF ADLAI E. STEVENSOS. 

sional raconteurs like Proctor Knott Lave 

so mucli reputation or have better deserved 

it. He nearly always lias something " to 

point a moral or adorn a tale," and yet he 

does not obtrude these stories. They are 

suggested naturally by the course of the 

conversation. His manner in tellino^ 

them — as is the case with all successful 

story-tellers — is deliberate, and he has a 

faculty of joining in the resulting laughter 

with much zest. 

It may not be inapt to recount, as may 

be done from memory, one of his political 

stories. He says : 

'' Early in 1872, when the opening of the 
Presidential campaign was imminent, an old- 
time client of mine from one of the country 
townships of McLean County came in to see 
me. He was a plain farmer of Kentucky 
birth and Southern ancestry. After we had 
talked for a good while about various 
matters, he touched on politics. Just at 
that time a good deal of discussion was go- 
ing on in the press about David Davis, my 
townsman, as the candidate to be nominated 
by the Liberal-Republican Convention then 
called to meet in Cincinnati during the fol- 
lowing May. When my friend asked me 
who was talked about I said : ' Well, a 
good many of us are thinking of Davis.' 



CHARACTERISTICS AND SUCCESS. 321 

My visitor thereupon said : * Well, you 
know, Mr. Stevenson, that our township is 
very strongly Democratic, and that its vote 
will be cast for any man whose nomination 
it is thought best to make.' Then he came 
up to me a little closer and added in a 
friendly and intimate way : ' But don't you 
think it's a little airly to bring old Jeff 
out.' " 

His stock of stories is large, and yet no 
man ever hears one a second or even a 
third time that he does not enjoy it quite 
as well as upon the first narration. There 
is always a new knack in the telling — 
something that gives new zest to it, and 
that, therefore, maintains the interest of 
the listener. 

Probably no man ever entered public 
life who made himself so thoroughly acces- 
sible as did Mr. Stevenson during the time 
that he was filling the office of First As- 
sistant Postmaster General. There was 
very little ceremony about whom he 
would see; none of that sending in of 
cards and waiting that have become the 
bane of men having business with public 
officials. Not only was he ready and will- 
ing to transact business in a business way, 



322 A SKETCH OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON. 

during business hours, but was also ever 
ready and willing to receive any man at his 
house or in a hotel or any place that seemed 
convenient. Few men have been com- 
pelled to lose their trains in order to 
transact business with him. He is a good 
listener, has quick decision, and is soon able 
to let his visitor know whether an impres- 
sion has been made upon him. 

He has never been looked upon as a 
political manager. All the nominations 
that he has ever had hare conie to liim 
without personal seeking. He has always 
had a fair knowledge of the situation in a 
district or State, or in the country, but was 
never a manager of caucuses, and at no_ 
time has he ever sought an office, in the 
ordinary acceptation of that term. 

He is a member of the Second Presby- 
terian Church of Bloomington, 111., and has 
been since his boyhood. His family con- 
sists of his aged mother, now in her eighty- 
fourth year, his wife, and four children, 
one son and three daughters. He has a 
home well situated, well furnished, but 
without anything that is merely for show 



CHARACTERISTICS AND SUCCESS 323 

or ostentation. He has close personal 
relations with his neighbors, and it is said 
that he has almost no enemies. This does 
not arise from any defect in his own char- 
acter, but from his even temper and his 
thorough tolerance of difference of opinion. 
Among his intimates was David Davis, for 
many years Justice of the Supreme Court 
of the United States, and who died while 
a member of the United States Senate. In 
all Mr. Stevenson's political fortunes Judge 
Davis was his earnest supporter and at all 
times his devoted personal friend. 



THE END. 



INDEX. 



Arthur, Chester A. , Pres- 
ident of the United States, 
73 ; courteous treatment of 
the President-elect and 
friendly relations with, 140; 
claims against Peru aban- 
doned under, 162 

Agriculture, Department of, 
efficient man chosen as Com- 
missioner, 198 

Allen, Lewis F., uncle of 
Grover Cleveland, 23 ; edi- 
tor of Shorthorn Herd 
Book, 22, 23 

Abolitionists, many, in revolt 
against their party, 125 

Bangs, Stetson, Tracy & 
MacVeagh, Cleveland's 
partnership with, 227 

3ass, Lyman K., nominated 
for District Attorney 
against Cleveland, 31 ; 
forms partnership with 
Cleveland, 34 

Bayard, Thomas F., voted for 
for President, 123 ; appoint- 
ment as Secretary of State, 
147 ; character of, 147 

Beebe, George M., leader in 
filibustering contest, 294 

Beecher, Rev. Henry Ward, 
supports Cleveland for Pres- 
ident, 127 

Bethlehem Iron Company, 



contract with, for armor 
plate and gun steel, 182 

Bissell, Wilson S., autlior's 
obligations to, viii ; enters 
law tirm with Cleveland, 
34 ; accompanies Cleveland 
to Albany, 80 

Black, John C, appointed 
Commissioner of Pensions, 
156 

Blackburn, J. C. S., graduate 
of Centre College, 277 

Blaine, James G., Republican 
candidate for President, 
126 ; opposition to, 127, 
128 ; defeated for President, 

130 ; carries eighteen States, 

131 ; Butler's Force bill de- 
feated by, 299 

Blair, Austin, of Micliigan ; 
supports Cleveland for 
President, 127 

Bloomington, Stevenson's re- 
movafto, 275 

Boies, Horace, selected as 
candidate for District At- 
torney, 31 

Boston Merchants' Associa- 
tion, speech before, 232 

Bowen & Rogers, hiw precep- 
tors of Grover Cleveland, 23 

Breckinridge, W. C. P., grad- 
uate of Centre College, 277 

Breckinridge, John C, grad- 
uate of Centre College, 277 



326 



INDEX. 



Bridgeport,' Conn., speech at, 
128 

Brown, Governor John 
Young, graduate of Centre 
College, 277 

Buchanan, James, Stevenson's 
first vote for. as candidate 
for President, 301 

Buffalo,' Cleveland's removal 
to, 23 ; growth of the city 
of, 45 ; Cleveland nominated 
for Mayor of. 45 ; Cleveland 
discovers weak points in 
Common Council of, 58 

Butler, Benjamin F., advo- 
cate of original Force bill, 
299 

Byron, Lord, favorite author 
with Grover Cleveland as 
young man, 14 

Caldwell, N. J., Rev. Rich- 
ard F. Cleveland's call to 
the Presbyterian Church, 5 

Carlisle. John G., conversa- 
tions with, on the tariff 
question, 220, 222 

Chamljerlain, Daniel H., sup- 
ports Cleveland for Presi- 
dent, 127 

Character, general estimate of 
of Cleveland's, 247 

Chase, Salmon P., Secretary 
of the Treasury, 151 

China, treaty with, negotiated 
by Secretary of State, 165 

City Government, Cleveland's 
opinion on, 86 

Civil Service Commission, in- 
stitution of, in New York 
Stale, 115 

Civil service reform, Cleve- 
land's opinion on, i27; let- 
ter to George William Cur- 
tis on, 134; result of policy 
in, 204 



Clarke, James Freeman, sup- 
ports Cleveland for Presi- 
dent, 127 

Cleveland, Aaron, Rev., death 
in Philadelphia, 3 

Cleveland, Grover, ancestry 
and early life. 1 ; birth at 
Caldwell. N. J., 6; always 
known b}^ middle name 
only, 6; clerk at grocer}' 
store at Fayetteville, ]S. Y., 
and duties, 9: returns to 
family at Clinton, 10; finds 
employment in tlie Blind 
Asylum. New York City, 
11; career in that institu- 
tion. 13; recollections of. by 
Miss Frances J. Crosby, 
13-22; reading, habits of 
work, etc., 14; kindness of 
heart, 14; as student and 
lawyer, 23-45: return to 
Holland Patent, 23; ad- 
mitted to the Bar, 26; first 
independent work as a lav,-- 
yer, 28; appointed Assist- 
ant District Attorney, 28; 
n(jniinated and elected 
Sheriff of Erie County. 33; 
returned to law practice, 
34; work as a lawyer, 34-35; 
estimate of his career as a 
lawyer, by Wilson S. Bis- 
sell, 37-43; becomes mem- 
ber of the firm of Bass, 
Cleveland & Bissell. 43; the 
firm becomes Cleveland. 
Bissell <fe Sicard, 44; as 
Mayor of Buffalo, 45-69; 
nominated for Mayor of 
Buffalo, 46; speech accept- 
ing nomination for Mayor. 
49; commanded support of 
independent elements, and 
of straight-out Republican 
newspapers, 51; elected 



INDEX. 



327 



Mayor, 51; talked of for 
higher honors, 69 ; canvass 
for the Governorship, 69-80 ; 
proposed by friends for the 
Democratic nomination for 
Governor, 71 ; goes to Syra- 
cuse convention, meets 
Daniel Manning, 72; elec- 
tion as Governor, 76; inau- 
guration as Governor, 80; 
first year in the Governor- 
ship, 80-105; first annual 
message as Governor, rec- 
ommendations of, 83, 84, 
85, 86, 87; speeches while 
Governor, 98; care in mak- 
ing appointments, 99; first 
Railroad Commissioner 

chosen by, 100; method of 
dealing with the labor ques- 
tion, 101, 102; second year 
in the Governorship, 105- 
116; second annual message 
to legislature, reviews con- 
dition of the State, 105; rec- 
ommendations of, 105-111; 
took no part in the canvass 
to secure his own nomina- 
tion for the Presidency, 115; 
the Presidential canvass 
and the election, 116-139; 
nominated for President, 
123; elected President, 130; 
carries twenty States, 131; 
has held nothing but execu- 
tive offices, 139; organizing 
the executive departments, 
140-159; inauguration as 
President, 141 ; inaugural 
address, 142; desires pub- 
lic confidence, 143; selects 
Daniel Manning as Secre- 
tary of State, 146; method 
of choosing his Cabinet, 
146; close attention given to 
legal questions while Presi- 



dent, 186; tours throughout 
the country, 206; speX'ches 
while President, 213; Tarilf- 
Reforni message, 214-224; 
renominated for President 
at St. Louis, 224; canvass 
of 1888 and retirement, 224- 
247; defeated for President, 
225; forms partnership with 
Bangs, Stetson, Tracy & 
MacVeagh, 227 ; takes a 
house in New York, 227; 
relation to nomination in 
1892, 245; general estimate 
of character, 247-260; esti- 
mate of, by R. W. Gilder, 
261-270 

Cleveland, Lewis Frederick, 
entered the army in 1861, 
30 

Cleveland, Moses, first Ameri- 
can of the name, 1 

Cleveland, Richard Cecil, 
entered the army in 1861, 
30 

Cleveland, Richard Falley, 
birth, Norwich, Conn., 4; 
settled in Baltimore, Md., 
4; married, 5; removed to 
Windham, Conn., 5; ac- 
cepts call to Portsmouth, 
Va., 5; settled as minister 
at Caldwell, N, J., 6; re- 
moved to Fayetteville, N. 
Y., 6; removed to Clinton, 
N. Y., 8; agent American 
Home Missionary Society, 
8; called to pastorate at, 
Holland Patent and death 
there, 11 

Cleveland, AVilliam, grand- 
father of Grover Cleveland, 
married to Margaret Fal- 
ley. 4 

Cleveland, Rev. William N., 
eldest son of Richard F. , 



32^ 



INDEX. 



and brother of Grover, 8 ; 
pastor at Presbyterian 
Church at Chaiimont, Jef- 
ferson County, New York, 
8; exemplary character, 22; 
letter to, 77 

Clinton, De Witt, Governor 
of New York, 81 

Clinton, George, Governor of 
New York, 81 

Codman, Charles R., supports 
Cleveland for President, 
127 

Colman, Norman J,, ap- 
pointed Commissioner of 
Agriculture, 153 

Cornell, AlonzoB., disinclin- 
ation as Governor to par- 
don ; exercises this power 
in the case of Flannigan on 
Cleveland's presentation of 
the case, 42 

Collins, Patrick A., speaker 
at ratification meeting, 303 

Contract labor, abolition of, 
by vote of the people of the 
State, 113 ; method of deal- 
ing with, by legislature, 113 

Cox, Samuel S. , appointed 
Minister to Turkey, 157 

Crittenden, Thomas T., grad- 
uate of Centre College, 277 

Crosby, Miss Frances J., au- 
thor's obligations to, vii ; 
pupil and teacher in the 
Institution for the Blind, 
12 ; recollections of Grover 
Cleveland, 13-22 ; hymn 
writer, 12 

Cutting, Harmon S., private 
secretary of Mayor of Buf- 
falo, 52 

Curry, appointed Minister to 
Spain, 157 

Curtis, George William, sup- 
ports Cleveland for Presi- 



dent, 127 ; letter to, on civil 
service reform, 134 

Davis, David, strong advo- 
cate of Stevenson's election, 
302 

Democratic Club of New 
York, speech before, 229 

Denby, Charles, appointed 
Minister to China, 157 

Dependent Pension bill, veto 
of, 202 

Dickinson, Don M., appointed 
Postmaster General, 190 ; 
record as Postmaster Gen- 
eral, 190, 191 

Direct Tax bill, veto of, 211 

Dix, John A., Governor of 
New York. 81 

Dorsheimer, William, United 
States District Attorney ; 
tendered Cleveland appoint- 
ment as assistant, 32 

Endicott, William C, ap- 
pointed Secretary of War, 
150 ; efficient record in of- 
fice, 185 

Estimate of character, by a 
literary man, 261-270 

Ewing, James S., Stevenson's 
law partner, 297 

Executive offices, Cleveland 
has held no other, 139 

Extradition Treaty concluded 
with England by Minister 
Phelps and Lord Rose- 
bery, 168 ; attitude of Sen- 
ate and Republican press 
toward, 169 

Franklin , Benjamin, friend 
of Rev. Aaron Cleveland, 3 

Folsom, Oscar, law partner 
in firm of Laning, Cleve- 
land & Folsom, 32 ; Cleve- 



INDEX. 



329 



land's tribute to at Bar 
meeting, 38 

Fairchild, Charles S., trans- 
ferred from Assistant Secre- 
tary of the Treasury to the 
head of the Department, 
154 ; policy as Secretary of 
the Treasury, 173 

Fisheries Treaty, conclusion 
of, 170 ; attitude of senators 
to, 171 

Five Cent Fare bill, veto of, 
91 

Flannigan, Cleveland's suc- 
cessful application for par- 
don of, 42 

Folger, Charles J., Republi- 
can candidate for Governor, 
73 

Free Soilers in revolt against 
their party, 125 

Fuller, Melville W., appointed 
Chief Justice, 187 

Gakfield, James A., tragic 
death of, 117 ; claims against 
Peru under administration 
of, 162 

Gallatin, Secretary of the 
Treasury, 151 

Garland, Augustus H., At- 
torney General, 147 ; char- 
acter of, 149 

Gilder, Richard Watson, ob- 
ligations of author to, viii ; 
estimate of Cleveland by, 
261 

Grand Army of the Repub- 
lic, veto of v^arrant for 
paying expenses, 61 ; sub- 
scription to funds of, 62 

Grant, General U. S., speech 
of Wm. F. Vilas at banquet 
to, in Chicago, 153 

Green, Rev. Lewis, father of 
Mr. Stevenson's wife, 278 



Grover, Rev. Stephen, min- 
ister at Caldwell, N. J., 
Grover Cleveland his name- 
sake, 6 

Hamilton College, at Clin- 
ton, N. Y.,8 

Harrison, Benjamin, New 
York and Indiana carried 
for, by free use of money, 
225 ; elected President, car- 
rying twenty States, 226 

Hay, Malcolm, appointed as 
Assistant Postmaster Gen- 
eral, 155 

Hendricks, Thomas A. , voted 
for for President, 123 ; 
nominated for Vice Pres- 
ident, 123 

Herd Book, American Short- 
horn, 23 ; recognition of 
Cleveland's work on, 24 

fligginson, Thomas Went- 
wortli, supports Cleveland 
for President, 127 

Hooker, Charles, speaker at 
ratification meeting, 303 

Indians, government of, 
Cleveland's policy on, 195 

Jenks, George A. , Assistant 
Secretary of the Interior 
and Solicitor General, 155 ; 
faithful work as Solicitor 
General, 186 

Jewett, James C, claims 
against Brazil for fifty mil- 
lions lodged with Depart- 
ment of State and thrown 
out by Secretary, 162 

Johnston, Joseph E.. ap- 
pointed Commissioner of 
Railroads, 156 

Jordan, Conrad N., United 
States Treasurer, 155 



330 



IND^X. 



Kerr, Michael, C, elected 
Speaker^of the House, 291 ; 
supported by Stevenson as 
candidate for Speaker, 291 

Kieley, A. M., nominated as 
Minister to Italy and ob- 
jected to by that govern- 
ment, 166 ; nominated as 
Minister to Austria-Hun- 
gary and objection made, 
166 

Lamar, L. Q. C, appointed 
as Secretary of the Interior, 
147 ; character of, 148 ; 
appointed Justice of the 
Supreme Court, 187, 

Lamont, Daniel S., chosen as 
private secretary to the 
President, 144 ; character- 
istics of, 145, 146 

Lame ducks of politics, [fewer 
than usual appointed," 156 

Laboring classes, Cleveland's 
opinions on, 103 

Laning, A. P., partner in law 
firm of Laning, Cleveland 
& Folsom, 32 

Lathrop, George V. N., ap- 
pointed Minister to Russia, 
157 

Lodge, Henry Cabot, his ad- 
vocacy of the Force bill, 299 

Lowell, James Russell, opin- 
ion of Cleveland, 267 ; let- 
ter to Josiah Quincy, J268 ; 
poem on Cleveland, 269 

Manning, Daniel, first meet- 
ing with Cleveland, 72 ; 
great political manager de- 
veloped by Tilden, 121 ; con- 
vention controlled by, and 
friends, 121 ; appointed 
Secretary of the Treasury, 

; 150 ; death of, 152 ; policy 



as Secretary of the Treas- 
ury, 171 

Marcy, William L. , Governor 
of New York, 81 

Matthews, Claude, graduate of 
Centre College, 277 

McCreary, James B., grad- 
uate of Centre College, 277 

McDonald, Joseph E., voted 
for for President, 123 

McCuUoch, Hugh, Secretary 
of the Treasury, 151 

McLane, Robert M., ap- 
pointed Minister to France, 
157 

McNulta, John, Republican 
candidate|for Congress, de- 
feated by Stevenson, 290 ; 
speech of congratulation to 
his old political opponent, 
311 

Ministerial habit, fixed in 
Cleveland family, 1 

Moore, Thomas, a favorite 
author with Grover Cleve- 
land as a young man, 14 

Mugwumps, developed as a 
distinctive element in poli- 
tics in 1884, 124 ; organ- 
ization of, 126 

Neal, Anne, mother of 
Grover Cleveland, 5 

Newark, N. J., speech at, 129 

New York Central Railroad, 
Cleveland's firm attorneys 
for, 36 

Niagara Falls, passage of law 
setting aside reservation, 
114 

North Carolina, productive- 
ness of, in men, 272 

Pardons and commutations, 
Cleveland's care in consid- 
erino:, as Governor, 95; 



INDEX. 



331 



opinion on pardoning 
power, 96, 97 

Pearson, Henry G., reap- 
pointed Postmaster at New 
York, 158 

Pendleton, George H., ap- 
pointed Minister to Ger- 
many, 157 

Pensions, Cleveland's policy 
on, 201; veto of private 
bills, 201 

Phelps, Edward J., appointed 
Minister to England, 157; 
treaty concluded with, 168; 

Pierce, Henry L., supports 
Cleveland for President, 
127 

Pound, Thaddeus C, sup- 
ports Cleveland for Presi- 
dent, 127 

Princeton Theological Semi- 
nary, William F. Cleve- 
land's graduation at, 5 

Public Building bills, veto 
of, 209 

Public Land Policy, 191 

QuiNCY, JosiAH, letter to, 
from James Russell Lowell, 
on Cleveland, 268 

Randall, Samuel J., voted 
for for President, 123; can- 
didate for Speaker of the 
House, 291; speaker at 
ratification meeting, 303 

Reed, Thomas B., promoted 
enactment of the Force 
bill, 299 

Reform Club, letter to, on 
Silver Question, 242; effect 
of same on public senti- 
ment, 243 

Rosebery, Lord, treaty with 
Minister Phelps, 168 

Rosecrans, General William 



S., appointed Register of 
the Treasury, 156 
Russell, William E., speech 
favoring re-election of, as 
Governor, 237 

Sandwich, Mass., speech in 
response to greeting of 
neighbors, 244 

Schell, Augustus, manager 
Institute for the Blind, 21 

Schurz, Carl, supports Cleve- 
land for President, 127 

Seward, William H., Gover- 
nor of New York, 81 

Seymour, Horatio, Governor 
of New York, 81 

Shepherd, Alexander R., Dis- 
trict of Columbia debt cre- 
ated bv, 292 

Sidwell.^R. L., defends Ste- 
venson's war record, 289 

Southern Hotel, Cleveland 
boarder at, 25 

Stedman-Hutchinson, Library 
of American Literature, list 
of Cleveland's sayings in, 
204 

Stevenson, Adlai E., ap- 
pointed First Assistant Post- 
master General, 155 ; birth 
and education, 271-277; 
birth of, 271; ancestors of 
settled in Kentucky, 271; 
ances^^ors of farmers in Ken- 
tucky, North Carolina, and 
Ireland, 272; attended pub- 
lic school in Kentucky and 
Illinois, 276; returnetl to 
Kentucky and entered Cen- 
tre College, 276; profes- 
sionjil life and politics, 278- 
287; enters upon the study 
of the law, 278; admitted 
to practice as a lawyer, 
279; removes to Woodford 



33: 



INDEX. 



County, 111., 280; elected 
District Attorney, 281; al- 
lies himself with the Doug- 
las Democracy, 285; deliv- 
ers an eulogy on Stephen A. 
Douglas, 285; nominated as 
candidate for elector, 288; 
strong Union man during 
the war, 288; service in Con- 
gress, 289-303; returned to 
Bloomington, 289 ; nomi- 
nated for Congress, 291; 
assignment to committee 
service, 292; supports Elec- 
toral Commission, 294; 
speech in favor of decision 
of Electoral Commission, 
295; nominated for Forty- 
sixth Congress, 297; elected, 
298; opposed to Army bill, 
299 ; election advocated by 
David Davis, 302; elected 
delegate to the National 
Democratic Convention, 
303; in the Post-Office De- 
partment, 304-315; ap- 
pointed as First Assistant 
Postmaster General, 304 ; 
removal of Fourth (Jlass 
Postmasters, 305; refusal to 
permit his property to be 
used for post office, 308 ; 
nominated as Associate Jus- 
tice of the Supreme Court 
of the District of Columbia, 
309; elected a delegate at 
large to Chicago conven- 
tion, 309; assisted inlocating 
the World's Fair at Chicago, 
310; president of the Mc- 
liCan County Coal Com- 
I)any, 311; attitude on labor 
question, 312; speech on 
labor in Congress, 313; char- 
acteristics and success, 315- 
323; not a man of wealtii or 



a money-maker, 316; book 
collector and reader, 316; 
conception of the legal pro- 
fession, 319; as a story-tel- 
ler, 319; accessibility \vhile 
Postmaster General, 321 ; 
not a political manager, 
322; member of the Presby- 
terian Church, 322 

Springer, William M., leader 
of filibustering contest, 
294 

Straus, Oscar S., appointed 
Minister to Turkey, 157; 
excellent record as Minister, 
104 

Takiff Reform, Cleveland's 
first otlicial reference to, 
after election as President, 
214 ; reference to in second 
annual message, 215 ; mes- 
sage of 1887 devoted en- 
tirely to, 216 

Tenure of Office Act, contest 
with Senate on, 200 

Thurman, Allen G., voted for 
for President, 123 ; speech 
at banquet to, 236 

Tilden, SannielJ., Governor 
of New York, 81 ; declines 
nomination for President in 
1880, 117; management of, 
and Cleveland's relation to, 
118; Cleveland not in entire 
sympathy with, 118 ; ene- 
mies of, also enemies of 
Cleveland, 120 

Tipton, Thomas F., Republi- 
can candidate for Congress, 
defeated by Stevenson, 
296 

Torrance, Cyrenius C, Dis- 
trict Attorney, appoints 
(Heveland his assistant, 
30 



INDEX. 



333 



University of Michigan, 
speech to students of, 237 ; 
extracts from, 238, 239. 240 

Veto, of ordiuaiice.s passed 
by Common Council of Buf- 
falo, 62 ; plain speech. 63; 
Mayor of Buffalo, Cleveland 
known as, 88 

Veto Power, free use of, as 
President, 209 

Vanderpoel, Cleveland's tirst 
law partnership formed 
with, 32 

Vilas, William F., President 
of the National Democratic 
Convention of 1884, 122 ; 
speech at Grant banf^uet, 
153 ; appointed Postmaster 
General, 153 ; transferred 
to the head of the Interior 
Department, 153 

Wadleigh, Bainbridge, sup- 
ports Cleveland for Presi- 
dent, 127 

"Waite, Morrison R., Chief 
Justice, death of, 187 

Walker, ex-Governor of Vir- 



ginia, speaker at ratitication 
meeting, 303 

Warner, A. J., letter to, on 
Free Coinage of Silver, 136 

Warner, John, Colonel of reg- 
iment raised by Stevenson 
and others, 288 

Washington Inauguration 
Centennial, speech at, 231 

Western New York, local 
pride of, 69 

Whitney, William C, ap- 
pointed Secretary of the 
Navy, 152 ; first report to 
the President, 179 ; policy 
as Secretary of the Nav3^ 
181 ; makes contract with 
Bethlehem Iron Company 
for armor plate and gun 
steel, 182 

Williams, Robert E., Stev- 
enson's law preceptor, 
278 

Woodberry, Levi, Secretary 
of the Treasury, 151 

Yale College, William 
F. Cleveland's graduation 
there, 3 



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